Is Germany nonetheless importing Russian gasoline? – DW – 11/19/2024 | EUROtoday

Germany’s three-party governing coalition, which collapsed this month, hasn’t had many success tales. Yet most observers agree that Chancellor Olaf Scholz deserves reward for taking emergency power measures to guarantee that folks did not freeze within the winter and there have been no blackouts after Germany determined to wean itself off Russian oil and gasoline after the Ukraine struggle broke out and Russia minimize off gasoline provides.

Germany was Europe’s largest importer of Russian gasoline earlier than Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. After saying a phase-out of Russian gasoline and Russia abruptly slicing off the gasoline provides, Berlin needed to discover alternate options, securing contracts with different suppliers whereas constructing terminals to obtain so-called liquefied pure gasoline (LNG) shipments by sea.

Within months, Germany had managed to cease immediately importing Russian gasoline.

The Russian gasoline provide to Germany once more got here within the highlight after the British enterprise every day Financial Times (FT) reported that it had seen a letter from the German Ministry of Economic Affairs dated November 6, wherein the ministry reportedly “instructs” Deutsche Energy Terminal (DET) “not to accept any deliveries of Russian LNG.” Quoting from the letter, FT wrote the ministry stated the order was issued to guard the nation’s “overriding public interests,” including that have been it to permit this cargo to go forward, “the LNG terminal would defy the very reason it was set up in the first place — making Germany and the EU as a whole “impartial of Russian gasoline.”

On November 14, information company Reuters reported that Germany certainly refused to permit the Russian LNG cargo to be unloaded on the Brunsbüttel terminal, citing business sources.

Why now, and why in any respect?

DET is a state-owned firm that operates 4 German LNG terminals on the North Sea coast — Brunsbüttel, Wilhelmshaven I and II, and Stade — which are important for making certain Germany’s gasoline provide.

When requested by DW if DET had acquired such an instruction, the corporate stated in an emailed assertion: “For legal reasons, we cannot provide information about contracts with third parties.”

The indisputable fact that the ministry noticed it essential to subject such an order now raises a number of questions. First of all, has Russian LNG been unloaded in Germany regardless of the boycott? And second, does such an instruction even exist?

The German Economy Ministry stated in an announcement that it “will not comment on any potentially leaked documents, as usual.”

The Federal Network Agency, chargeable for Germany’s gasoline pipeline community, additionally declined to remark. According to spokeswoman Nadia Affani, the company “cannot provide information on any instructions from the Ministry of Economic Affairs to DET.”

Who purchased the Russian gasoline for whom?

If Russian LNG has flowed by German networks, it should have been ordered and bought by somebody. It’s speculated that this has occurred by way of an organization referred to as SEFE Energy GmbH — a state-owned gasoline importer previously often called Wingas and based mostly within the city of Kassel.

Founded in 1993 as a German-Russian three way partnership, it was bought to Russian power large Gazprom in October 2015. After Russia invaded Ukraine, the corporate was nationalized, with the German state being the only proprietor of the corporate since 2022.

At the second, there may be, nevertheless, no clear proof that SEFE purchased the Russian LNG cargo as a result of the corporate didn’t reply to a associated inquiry from DW.

Another chance, which could additionally clarify the alleged letter from the German ministry to DET, includes potential transit offers of Russian LNG throughout the European Union. Perhaps Russian gasoline was offloaded at German terminals after which forwarded to different European nations. FT wrote in its article that whereas the US and the UK have banned Russian LNG, “the EU has continued to import the fuel,” with  Belgium, Spain, and France, for instance, having long-term contracts with Russia.

Federal Network Agency spokeswoman Affani cannot rule out a attainable gasoline switch by German networks, telling DW that it is “conceivable that Russian gas molecules might flow to or through Germany” as a transit nation. “The Federal Network Agency does not track whether German importers are buying Russian LNG directly. Nor does the agency collect import data from neighboring countries.”

For the German Economy Ministry, in contrast, it stays “abundantly clear” that Germany “does not receive Russian gas,” and that any such shipments for others “must not happen through German LNG terminals,” the ministry advised DW in an announcement.

Political LNG puzzle in Brussels

The confusion over German LNG imports from Russia is one more piece within the puzzle of EU sanctions in opposition to Moscow.

Zukunft Gas (Future of Gas), a Brussels-based lobbying group for the German gasoline business, says Russian LNG nonetheless accounted for 16% of complete LNG imports to the bloc in October, citing current information compiled by Brussels-based suppose tank Bruegel.

Zukunft Gas spokesman Charlie Grüneberg says the transit of Russian gasoline by EU terminals will doubtless finish in March 2025 beneath a brand new EU sanctions package deal in opposition to Russia — the bloc’s 14th — agreed upon in July this yr.

“The package also includes new restrictions on Russian LNG. It will prohibit the transfer of Russian LNG in European ports for onward shipment to non-EU third countries,” Grüneberg advised DW. Asked what’s taking place within the meantime, he added “beyond that, there are no general EU sanctions against Russian gas.”

So far, it stays unclear whether or not or not German LNG ports have accepted shipments of Russian gasoline regardless of the nation’s import ban.

This article was initially written in German.