German Economy Minister Robert Habeck is preparing further measures to curb that country's consumption of natural gas and pivot away from already reduced Russian gas deliveries, according to German news agency dpa.
It said the government in Berlin is providing billions of euros in funding to support using less gas for power and industry.
Storage facilities will also be filled further ahead of the onset of winter, it said.
Dpa quoted Habeck, a Green member of the center-left coalition ruling Germany since December, as saying in the five-page paper that "gas consumption must continue to fall, and more gas must go into the storage facilities, otherwise it will be really tight in winter."
The paper suggests that coal-fired power plants would help make up the shortfall.
Europeans have imposed unprecedented financial, travel, diplomatic, and other sanctions on Russia since President Vladimir Putin ordered tens of thousands of Russian troops into Ukraine on February 24 in Europe's biggest foreign invasion since World War II.
Russia's Gazprom monopoly has cut off supplies to a number of countries over its demand that they abandon hard-currencies for payments in rubles since the sanctions hit.
It announced repeated reductions this week of its deliveries through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline to Germany, citing technical problems.
Habeck said at the time that the new developments were political and “clearly show the Russian side’s explanation is simply an excuse.”
Chancellor Olaf Scholz has resisted imposing curbs on customer consumption, saying "individual measures" would require having a broader price plan in place.
Germany is traditionally one of Russia's biggest gas customers.
Gazprom has already cut off supplies to Bulgaria, Poland, Finland, the Netherlands, and Denmark.
