The EU is to receive more liquefied natural gas from the US in order to reduce dependence on Russia. The annual volume that tankers land from America is expected to rise to 50 billion cubic meters, equivalent to a third of previous imports from Russia. But this will take time. This year it should be at least 15 billion cubic meters of liquefied natural gas. Commission President Ursula von der Leyen presented this agreement with US President Joe Biden in Brussels on Friday. “Our partnership aims to let us hold out in this war,” said the CDU politician.
Federal Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) announced the first successes for Germany in terms of greater independence from Russia. “We have made good progress, I would even say very good, because we acted prudently,” said Habeck in Berlin at the presentation of the progress report on energy security. “A lot has happened in the past four weeks,” said Habeck, referring to terminated and unextended contracts by German energy companies.
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So far, Russia has accounted for 45 percent of gas imports into the EU. This dependency limits Europe’s ability to punish President Vladimir Putin for his incursion into Ukraine. At the EU summit in Brussels, Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, among others, called for a gas embargo to be imposed on Russia. But other governments, such as the German and Austrian ones, reject this because the damage to the domestic economy would be too great.
The EU Commission has given as a targetto become completely independent of gas, oil and coal imports from Russia by 2027. By the end of the current year, gas imports from the country should fall by two thirds, which experts consider very ambitious. In all, the commission plans to replace 50 billion cubic meters of Russian gas with imports of LNG — the common abbreviation for liquefied natural gas — by the end of the year. A similar amount of Russian gas is to be eliminated as a result of the fact that the member states purchase more pipeline gas from other countries, reduce gas consumption for heating and quickly build more wind and solar power plants.
EU countries should order gas together
In the agreement with the US, EU governments pledge that their energy suppliers will purchase large quantities of liquefied natural gas by at least 2030. Gaining a foothold in Europe was a long-cherished dream of American gas suppliers. To do this, the Europeans have to build more terminals where the tankers can unload their cargo with the liquefied gas. The US government, in turn, promises to allow an expansion of domestic gas production – for which the producers use the controversial fracking technique. Environmental organizations criticize the deal. In view of the planned move away from fossil fuels, the solution is “very expensive and short-sighted,” according to a statement by the think tank E3G. Jose Fernandez, Secretary of State for Energy and Environment at the US State Department, rejected the allegations: Part of the agreement is also to accelerate the development of clean energies. “We always knew that the transition to a climate-neutral economy would not happen overnight, but that there would be intermediate steps,” he said on the sidelines of a meeting of the International Energy Agency in Paris.
At the EU summit, the heads of state and government also supported a proposal by the Commission that member states could jointly order pipeline gas or LNG in future. The initiative aims to prevent governments from outbidding each other in negotiations, a Commission official said. However, the federal government warns that such a model will not change the scarce supply. Minister Habeck recently agreed a national energy partnership with Qatar.
According to the energy security report, 55 percent of the gas in Germany came from Russia in the past. At the end of the first quarter of this year, this share fell to 40 percent; Imports from Norway and the Netherlands have increased, as has the purchase of LNG. By the end of the year, the share of Russian gas deliveries could fall to 30 percent, and in the summer of 2024 even ten percent would be achievable. But only if energy is saved and renewables are expanded.
It should go faster with oil and coal. Last year, oil from Russia accounted for 35 percent of German consumption. These imports could be halved by the middle of the year, and by the end of the year Germany wants to be “virtually independent” of Russian oil. In the case of hard coal, dependence on Russia was even 50 percent. However, power plant operators and industry have already changed their supply contracts; in the coming weeks, dependency will drop to about 25 percent, the report says. Germany could be “independent of Russian coal” by the fall.