Register now for FREE limitless entry to Reuters.com
SYDNEY, July 13 (Reuters) – Germany will fully cease shopping for Russian coal on Aug. 1 and Russian oil on Dec. 31, marking a significant shift within the supply of the nation’s power provide, Joerg Kukies, state secretary within the German federal chancellery, mentioned at a convention in Sydney.
The important thing problem forward might be filling the large hole that might be left when the European Union weans itself off the 158 billion cubic metres (bcm) per yr of gasoline that Russia provides, Kukies mentioned.
“We might be off Russian coal in a number of weeks,” he informed the Sydney Vitality Discussion board, co-hosted by the Australian authorities and the Worldwide Vitality Company.
Register now for FREE limitless entry to Reuters.com
Russian beforehand equipped 40% of Germany’s coal and 40% of its oil, he mentioned.
“Anybody who is aware of the historical past of the Druzhba pipeline, which was already a instrument of the Soviet empire over jap Europe, ridding your self of that dependence isn’t a trivial matter, however it’s one that we’ll obtain in a number of months,” Kukies mentioned.
Germany is quickly growing liquefied pure gasoline (LNG) import terminals to assist fill the gasoline provide hole, however he highlighted that whereas america and Qatar might collectively provide round 30 bcm of gasoline in LNG type to Europe, that also left an enormous hole.
“We won’t simply think about this drawback away,” Kukies mentioned.
He mentioned whereas Germany was targeted on the transition to web zero emissions and had just lately put in place laws to speed up the event of renewable power tasks, gasoline could be important to the shift.
(This story corrects headline and paragraph 1 to indicate Kukies is now state secretary within the federal chancellery, not deputy finance minister)
Register now for FREE limitless entry to Reuters.com
Reporting by Sonali Paul; Modifying by Muralikumar Anantharaman and Kenneth Maxwell
Our Requirements: The Thomson Reuters Belief Ideas.