Competition in the German gas storage market is tougher than ever. In an interview, MET manager Jan Massmann explains why efficiency is becoming a decisive factor.
MET Group is growing rapidly: rising trading volumes, expansion into new markets, and an almost 60% increase in sales in the 2025 financial year underscore its growth trajectory. As an integrated player across natural gas, LNG, power, and renewables, the company is increasingly focusing on infrastructure as a strategic lever.
Gas storage facilities in Germany, in particular, are gaining importance as a backbone for trading, supply, and flexibility. In an interview with ZfK, Jan Massmann explains the role they play within the Group’s overall strategy.
Mr Massmann, with its acquisitions in the gas storage market, MET Group appears to be bucking the trend. Why?
Jan Massmann: It’s true that the German storage market is currently facing a very challenging economic environment. Building new storage facilities is not viable at the moment – and as a result, no one is doing so. The situation is different for existing facilities. Here, the key questions are how efficiently they can be operated and for how long that efficiency can be sustained.
This varies from facility to facility. It depends on when reinvestments are required and what the technical characteristics above and below ground look like. What we are seeing today is very intense competition among storage operators – down to variable marginal cost levels where continued operation is only just economically viable.
It’s possible that original investments will no longer be fully recouped. That is the environment in which we operate. In the end, I believe the operators that can run their storage facilities at the lowest cost will prevail. Facilities with less favourable conditions, higher investment needs, or higher operating costs may exit the market over time.
Looking specifically at your storage facilities – for example in Etzel and Reckrod – how do you assess their profitability?
I don’t want to go into detail. What I can say is that we acquired all of these facilities within the past five years, and so far, our expectations at the time of acquisition have been met.
That suggests the strategy is working and the facilities are operating profitably. Does size matter more in your acquisition strategy, or the quality of individual projects?
We evaluate every project purely on economic grounds. Size in itself is not a deciding factor for us. The only decisive criterion is whether a project makes economic sense.
How do you assess the political interventions during the energy crisis, particularly the mandatory gas storage fill levels and their subsequent relaxation?
The fill‑level requirements restricted how our customers were able to use storage facilities. This made it more difficult for them to operate storage economically, which in turn affected us as operators.
I don’t want to judge whether these measures were the right instrument. The fact is that they worked – we made it through the crisis. Personally, I believe it is right that the requirements are now being phased out. We saw speculative behaviour emerging around these obligations, which led to undesirable market distortions.
Was the relaxation of the requirements a reaction to this speculation? And how do you assess current low fill levels?
These are two separate issues. The fill‑level requirements remain in place until the end of the year. The current challenge is that it is difficult to find customers for storage capacity – many capacities have not yet been marketed.
In this environment, the requirements are not helpful. On the contrary, the price distortions they cause lead to fewer storage bookings, which in turn results in lower utilisation. In a sense, this becomes self‑reinforcing. The fill‑level obligations do not alleviate this situation.
What role does the winter‑summer spread play in your business?
For us, it does not play a direct role, as we have marketed our capacities on a long‑term basis. More generally, spreads fluctuate – sometimes they are favourable, sometimes not. That is inherent to a trading market, and managing this volatility is the task of traders.
Which political instruments do you think could make sense in securing storage filling in the future, such as strategic reserves or the French Contracts for Difference model?
As I see it, there are currently two main approaches being discussed: the French CfD model and strategic storage. If both are capable of achieving the objective, then I believe the solution with the lower economic cost should be chosen. Ultimately, however, that is a political decision.
Are gas storage facilities losing importance as LNG capacities continue to grow?
I don’t see it that way. LNG enters the system in shipments and needs to be made available over time. Looking at global markets, much LNG is consumed in regions such as Asia, where there are comparatively few underground storage facilities available.
This leads to greater price volatility, particularly in winter. Without storage, exposure to these fluctuations increases. Storage allows supply and prices to be stabilised. For that reason, I don’t believe LNG fundamentally reduces the need for gas storage.
Do you see current geopolitical developments – such as the conflict in the Middle East – reflected in customer behaviour?
No. Our capacities are marketed on a long‑term basis, so we don’t see short‑term effects. We operate around 5.2 terawatt hours of working gas volume, and our storage capacity is fully booked long term. Prices are fixed, so short‑term geopolitical events do not directly affect us.
Does MET use storage capacity for its own trading activities?
No. All capacity is offered transparently to the market and is fully contracted. There is no preferential treatment and no withholding of capacity.
Do you see further consolidation potential in the German gas storage market?
We continue to monitor the market and assess growth opportunities. As I mentioned earlier, whether we pursue an acquisition always depends on the individual project and its economic viability.
Are you strategically focusing on flexibility within the energy system?
Absolutely. We believe flexibility will become increasingly important in an ever more volatile energy landscape – whether through gas storage, battery storage, or power generation assets. Despite intense competition, we see flexibility as a key long‑term value driver.