Germany demands its ports not to accept Russian gas – FT

Germany has warned its state-owned gas terminals to refuse any Russian liquefied natural gas cargoes after being notified of the planned delivery, the Financial Times reports, UNN writes.

Details

In a letter dated November 6 and seen by the Financial Times, the German economy ministry “instructs Deutsche Energy Terminal not to accept any Russian LNG shipments” after the company informed Berlin that its import facility in Brunsbüttel was to receive a Russian cargo on Sunday.

The ministry said the order was issued to protect the country’s “overriding public interest,” calling on the operator to “refuse LNG supplies from Russia until further notice.

The potential supply comes at a time when LNG is set to become a bargaining chip for the EU and Donald Trump’s presidency, with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen last week putting forward the idea of replacing Russian LNG with large imports from the United States, the newspaper writes.

Germany was the largest importer of Russian gas in Europe before Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. When Putin cut off gas supplies through pipelines to Germany and other European countries, Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government rushed to find alternatives and built a number of LNG terminals to receive gas supplies by sea.

In its letter, the German ministry said that if it allowed the shipment, the LNG terminal would challenge the very reason it was originally created – to make Germany and the EU as a whole “independent of Russian gas.

But while the US and the UK have banned Russian LNG, the EU has continued to import the fuel – with 20 percent of the fuel purchased from Russia, according to Kpler, a commodities data company, the newspaper writes.

Most of the Russian LNG has been shipped to France, Spain, and Belgium under long-term contracts, which the companies involved say they cannot withdraw from unless a full-scale ban is imposed. Germany has not imported Russian LNG directly since Moscow’s invasion, and the ministry’s instruction “ensures that this will continue to be the case,” the letter says.

However, Germany’s state-owned energy group Sefe has a long-term contract to supply LNG from Russia’s Yamal export facility, and it has sent almost all of its deliveries to the facility for import in France, according to Kpler. There, the LNG is regasified and fed into the connected European pipeline system. Germany started receiving pipeline gas from France in October 2022.

The German Ministry of Economy declined to comment directly on the letter, adding that “it is true in principle that Germany does not import Russian gas, and it is also clear to [the Ministry of Economy] that this should not be done through German LNG terminals.

The ministry is headed by German Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck, whose Green Party has taken a hard line against Putin. Ship tracking data, as indicated, has not yet revealed any vessels signaling the import terminal in Brunsbüttel, although three vessels leaving Yamal in recent days have indicated they are headed for Europe.

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