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Germany continues to be shopping for vital quantities of Russian liquefied pure gasoline by way of different EU nations regardless of Berlin turning away direct shipments of Russian gasoline, a report has discovered.
German nationwide vitality firm Sefe purchased 58 cargoes of Russian LNG by means of the French port of Dunkirk final yr — greater than six occasions the determine in 2023, in keeping with a report by Belgian, German and Ukrainian NGOs.
The problem of tracing Russian gasoline by means of the EU’s vitality system has turn into a essential difficulty because the bloc tries to wean itself off Russian fossil fuels. Following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine almost three years in the past, which pushed vitality costs within the EU to document highs, Brussels set a nominal goal of expunging all Russian gasoline from the bloc by 2027.
Imports of seaborne Russian gasoline, which haven’t been banned, hit a document excessive in 2024. Solely round 10 per cent of the EU’s piped gasoline got here from Russia in 2024, in keeping with European Fee figures, whereas Russian coal and nearly all Russian oil had been sanctioned.
Power ministers from Belgium, France and Spain, whose ports obtain shipments from Russian LNG tankers, have insisted that little or no of the gasoline arriving is used domestically and that the majority is piped on to different EU nations. In November, Germany ordered its state-operated import terminals to reject any Russian LNG cargoes.
“Germany has prohibited the import of Russian LNG at its ports. However imports formally sourced from France and Belgium are the truth is partly composed of Russian LNG, successfully whitewashing the gasoline,” mentioned Angelos Koutsis, vitality coverage officer at Belgian think-tank Bond Beter Leefmilieu, which helped produce the report.
“The top result’s that each one nations concerned can declare to not be liable for the nonetheless growing demand for Russian LNG.”
The report, which was additionally compiled by German environmental teams Deutsche Umwelthilfe and Urgewald, and Ukrainian NGO Razom We Stand, suggests the nation continues to be receiving between 3 per cent and 9.2 per cent of its gasoline provide from Russia by way of different EU nations.
An absence of transparency within the EU’s inner gasoline market has led to “finger-pointing amongst member states, which has led to inaction towards Russian LNG as no member state feels totally accountable”, it added.
Fuel transported from Belgian ports, for instance, is usually labelled “Belgian gasoline” in official German databases regardless of Belgium having no gasoline manufacturing of its personal.
Sefe, which was owned by Russian state gasoline firm Gazprom till it was nationalised in 2022, mentioned it didn’t disclose gross sales numbers and so may neither verify nor deny the findings of the report. It has a long-term contract with Russia’s Yamal LNG, led by non-public vitality group Novatek, whereas it could have purchased some cargoes from merchants.
“As soon as delivered into the European gasoline community, the molecules can’t be tracked. It’s due to this fact not possible to know the place precisely the gasoline that will get delivered in Dunkirk finally ends up,” Sefe mentioned.
A spokesperson for the German economic system ministry mentioned: “There aren’t any authorized restrictions on deliveries of Russian LNG within the EU. [But] Russian LNG gasoline solely performs a minor position; it may enter the German gasoline community by means of mixing, as European gasoline merchants normally get hold of gasoline from completely different sources.”
France and 9 different EU nations referred to as in October for nations to publish data on suppliers that import LNG from Russia and the volumes coming into EU ports.
Monitoring the supply of gasoline coming into the EU is achievable by means of legally mandated transparency knowledge, mentioned Tom Marzec-Manser, an impartial gasoline analyst.
However “it’s as soon as the gasoline, or regassified LNG, begins to journey throughout the inner market that it turns into particularly troublesome to untangle the place the gasoline has commercially been delivered”, he mentioned.
“This could require every shipper to declare such data for each hour of the day for every community, which might be extremely burdensome,” Marzec-Manser added.
