Bloomberg: Germany’s plan to replace Russian gas has fallen apart

MOSCOW, 26 Sep — PRIME. All German Chancellor Olaf Scholz could agree on during his visit to the United Arab Emirates was just one shipment of liquefied natural gas (LNG), which will be delivered to a floating terminal in Germany by early 2023, Bloomberg observers write.

“Europe’s largest economy is on the verge of shutting down and rationing electricity, all because it cannot find a replacement for supplies from Russia,” they warned.

The 137,000 cubic meter cargo will be delivered by Abu Dhabi National Oil Company ADNOC to German utility companies RWE by early 2023. ADNOC also signed a memorandum of understanding to increase supplies next year. To date, additional supplies are of key importance for Germany, because German officials have already warned the population about the imminent shutdown and rationing of electricity in the country this winter.

“The country’s economy is sliding into recession. The deal announced on Sunday shows how difficult it is for the country to secure additional volumes,” the material says.

A day earlier, Scholz visited Saudi Arabia, where he met with the crown prince of OPEC’s leading power and held talks about future cooperation and hydrogen imports. However, these questions are more about long-term security than possible shortages in the coming winter. Then, having visited the UAE and not having come to any significant results, Scholz went to Qatar, where he discussed long-term plans for the supply of gas and hydrogen with the country’s emir.

“Germany and Qatar have been discussing LNG supplies for several months, but Germany does not want to enter into long-term contracts at record prices. Qatar’s Energy Minister noted on Saturday that negotiations with German companies RWE and Uniper on long-term LNG contracts are ongoing,” Bloomberg noted.

Under the terms of the deal with ADNOC, LNG will be delivered to the RWE floating terminal at Brunsbüttel near Hamburg as early as the end of December. Germany is actively building floating LNG import terminals, with some expected to be ready this winter, the agency said.

Earlier, the Prime Minister of Saxony, Michael Kretschmer, in an interview with the newspapers of the Funke group, said that Germany cannot afford to completely do without Russian gas, so it is necessary to resume economic cooperation with Moscow.

After the start of the Russian special operation to demilitarize and denazify Ukraine, the West stepped up sanctions pressure on Moscow: Russian assets worth hundreds of billions of dollars were frozen, the European Union has already adopted seven packages of restrictive measures, including an embargo on coal and oil.

The Kremlin called these measures an economic war. As Vladimir Putin noted, the policy of containing and weakening Russia is a long-term strategy for the West, but the sanctions have dealt a serious blow to the entire global economy. The population of European countries has already faced a significant rise in the price of food, fuel and electricity, and the authorities are forced to introduce austerity measures due to the energy crisis.

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