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Germany continues to be shopping for important quantities of Russian liquefied pure gasoline through different EU international locations regardless of Berlin turning away direct shipments of Russian gas, a report has discovered.
German nationwide vitality firm Sefe purchased 58 cargoes of Russian LNG, by way of the French port of Dunkirk final yr — greater than six instances the determine in 2023, in response to a report by Belgian, German and Ukrainian NGOs.
The problem of tracing Russian gasoline by way of the EU’s vitality system has turn out to be a vital subject because the bloc tries to wean itself off Russian fossil fuels. Following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine practically three years in the past, which pushed vitality costs within the EU to file highs, Brussels set a nominal goal of expunging all Russian gas from the bloc by 2027.
Imports of seaborne Russian gasoline, which haven’t been banned, hit a record high in 2024. Solely round 10 per cent of the EU’s piped gasoline got here from Russia in 2024, in response to European Fee figures, whereas Russian coal and nearly all Russian oil had been sanctioned.
Vitality 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 international locations. 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 in actual fact partly composed of Russian LNG, successfully whitewashing the gasoline,” stated Angelos Koutsis, vitality coverage officer at Belgian think-tank Bond Beter Leefmilieu, which helped produce the report.
“The tip result’s that every one international locations concerned can declare to not be answerable for the nonetheless rising demand for Russian LNG.”
The report, which was additionally compiled by German environmental teams Deutsche Umwelthilfe and Urgewald, and Ukrainian NGO Razom We Stand, means that the nation continues to be receiving between 3 and 9.2 per cent of its gasoline provide from Russia through different EU international locations.
An absence of transparency within the EU’s inner gasoline market has led to “finger-pointing amongst member states, which has led to inaction in opposition to Russian LNG as no member state feels absolutely accountable”, it added.
Fuel transported from Belgian ports, for instance, is mostly 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 until it was nationalised in 2022, stated it didn’t disclose gross sales numbers and so may neither affirm nor deny the findings of the report. It has a long-term contract with Russia’s Yamal LNG, led by personal vitality group Novatek, whereas it might have purchased some cargoes from merchants.
“As soon as delivered into the European gasoline community, the molecules can’t be tracked. It’s subsequently not possible to know the place precisely the gasoline that will get delivered in Dunkirk finally ends up,” Sefe stated.
The German economic system ministry didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
France and 9 different EU international locations referred to as in October for international locations 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 way of legally mandated transparency knowledge, stated Tom Marzec-Manser, an impartial gasoline analyst.
However “it’s as soon as the gasoline, or regassified LNG, begins to journey inside the inner market that it turns into particularly troublesome to untangle the place the gasoline has commercially been delivered,” he stated.
“This may require every shipper to declare such data for each hour of the day for every community, which might be extremely burdensome,” Marzec-Manser added.
