REHDEN (dpa-AFX) - After a deflagration at Germany's largest gas storage facility in Rehden, Lower Saxony, the storage facility is to go back into operation. This is to take place on Friday at 6:00 a.m., as the operator Astora announced on Thursday. Due to a technical defect, there was a deflagration at a flare on Tuesday.

For safety reasons, the storage facility was reportedly taken out of service. The storage facility had been inspected by staff in coordination with the authorities over the past few days, which had allowed the technical defect to be detected, it said. The company did not initially provide further details on the defect.

The damage identified during the investigation would be repaired soon so that the injection readiness could also be resumed. The incident had no impact on the security of supply, it said.

The storage facility in Rehden in the Diepholz district is one of the largest in Western Europe and has a volume of around four billion cubic meters./mni/DP/jha