German demand soars for Russian LNG via European ports

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Germany continues to be shopping for vital quantities of Russian liquefied pure fuel through different EU nations regardless of Berlin turning away direct shipments of Russian gas, a report has discovered.

German nationwide power firm Sefe purchased 58 cargoes of Russian LNG by the French port of Dunkirk final 12 months — greater than six occasions the determine in 2023, in keeping with a report by Belgian, German and Ukrainian NGOs.

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The problem of tracing Russian fuel by the EU’s power system has develop into a essential challenge 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 power 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 fuel, which haven’t been banned, hit a record high in 2024. Solely round 10 per cent of the EU’s piped fuel 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 fuel arriving is used domestically and that almost all 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 in truth partly composed of Russian LNG, successfully whitewashing the fuel,” mentioned Angelos Koutsis, power coverage officer at Belgian think-tank Bond Beter Leefmilieu, which helped produce the report.

“The top result’s that every one nations concerned can declare to not be accountable for the nonetheless growing demand for Russian LNG.”

Column chart of EU imports of Russian LNG by destination country (mn tonnes) showing France, Spain and Belgium import the most Russian LNG to the EU

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 fuel provide from Russia through different EU nations.

An absence of transparency within the EU’s inside fuel market has led to “finger-pointing amongst member states, which has led to inaction towards Russian LNG as no member state feels absolutely accountable”, it added.

Fuel transported from Belgian ports, for instance, is usually labelled “Belgian fuel” in official German databases regardless of Belgium having no fuel manufacturing of its personal.

Sefe, which was owned by Russian state fuel firm Gazprom until it was nationalised in 2022, mentioned it didn’t disclose gross sales numbers and so might neither affirm nor deny the findings of the report. It has a long-term contract with Russia’s Yamal LNG, led by non-public power group Novatek, whereas it could have purchased some cargoes from merchants.

“As soon as delivered into the European fuel community, the molecules can’t be tracked. It’s due to this fact not possible to know the place precisely the fuel that will get delivered in Dunkirk finally ends up,” Sefe mentioned.

A spokesperson for the German financial system ministry mentioned: “There are not any authorized restrictions on deliveries of Russian LNG within the EU. [But] Russian LNG fuel solely performs a minor function; it might probably enter the German fuel community by mixing, as European fuel merchants normally acquire fuel from totally 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 fuel coming into the EU is achievable by legally mandated transparency information, mentioned Tom Marzec-Manser, an impartial fuel analyst.

However “it’s as soon as the fuel, or regassified LNG, begins to journey throughout the inside market that it turns into particularly tough to untangle the place the fuel has commercially been delivered”, he mentioned.

“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.