Study: German state-owned company plays key role in importing Russian LNG into EU

Germany continues to play a key role in importing Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG) into the European Union. This is according to a report by environmental organization Deutsche Umwelthilfe (DUH), reported today by the DPA news agency. The state-owned energy company Sefe imported six times more LNG into the EU last year than in 2023.

According to European Commission figures, 20 billion cubic meters of Russian LNG were imported into the EU last year. A year earlier, the figure was 18 billion cubic meters. According to analytics company Kpler, the figures were 22 billion cubic meters last year and 18.41 billion the year before. Sefe imported 5.66 billion cubic meters of Russian LNG into the EU last year.

However, according to the European Commission, most LNG imported into the EU market comes from the United States. The EU’s largest importers are France, Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium and Italy. Storage facilities are filled at terminals in these countries, and the gas is then transported to other EU countries.

The European Union has imposed a range of sanctions on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, many of them targeting the Russian energy sector. In addition, Ukraine halted the transit of Russian gas through its territory to EU countries and Moldova at the start of this year. It said Moscow uses revenue from the sale of energy commodities to partly finance its war of aggression. However, LNG from Russia continues to flow to Europe. Among other restrictions, its resale from EU ports to third countries is banned.

The German state-owned company Sefe (Securing Energy for Europe GmbH) imports liquefied gas into France, mainly through the port of Dunkirk. The company told DPA that no sanctions are currently in place on LNG imports into Europe, so there is no basis for terminating its existing contract with the Russian seller. Sefe would still have to pay for the contracted volume of gas even if it did not take delivery. In that case, the supplier could sell the gas to a third party, thereby further supporting the Russian economy, the German state-owned company added. Sefe was formerly called Gazprom Germania and was a subsidiary of Russian state-owned conglomerate Gazprom. The company was nationalized after Russia’s February 2022 attack on Ukraine.