The company, Germany's biggest importer of Russian gas, is also considering legal action against Moscow's giant Gazprom to compensate its shareholders for a 90% drop in their market value following a sharp drop in Russian gas supply since June.

"We cannot rule out that Germany might look at rationing gas as something that might have to be considered," CEO Klaus-Dieter Maubach told Reuters in an interview on the sidelines of an international gas conference in Milan.

"We know that the government wants to avoid this as much as possible because that would be a disaster for so many reasons," he added.

Europe's gas prices surged on Monday after Russia stopped pumping via Nord Stream 1, a major supply route to the continent, in another shock wave to the European Union as it struggles to recover from the pandemic.

(Reporting by Marwa Rashad and Francesca Landini; additional reporting by Elvira Pollina, Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)

By Francesca Landini and Marwa Rashad