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Nord Stream 1: Germany imported 56.3 billion cubic meters of Russian natural gas
Photo: HANNIBAL HANSCHKE / REUTERS
Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a cabinet meeting on Thursday that Russia is sticking to all energy supply commitments it has made.
The "transport system for gas" in the Ukraine is "100 percent full".
Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak threatened on Monday that Russia could stop gas supplies via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline in retaliation for stopping the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project.
Russia is Germany's most important energy supplier.
In 2020, the Federal Republic imported 56.3 billion cubic meters of Russian natural gas, which corresponded to around 55 percent of imports.
According to the Federal Ministry of Economics, this proportion remained roughly the same in 2021.
In addition, Germany imported a good 28 million tons of crude oil from Russia in 2020, which corresponded to around a third of crude oil imports.
If these deliveries fail to materialize, according to current figures from the Federal Statistical Office, this would also have an impact on the German seaports: with 24.1 million tons from January to November 2021, Russia was the most important trading partner of the German seaports.
Fossil fuels accounted for 10.8 million tons of this, which corresponded to 37.7 percent of all fuels imported via the seaports.
Income of 700 million dollars a day for Russia
Russia, in turn, relies on income from the sale of raw materials.
According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), in January 2022 around 45 percent of Russia's budget funds came from taxes and tariffs on oil and gas exports.
For natural gas alone, a total of around 400 million dollars (368 million euros) flow from the EU to Russia every day, and this amount could continue to rise given the currently high gas prices.
Total Russian export earnings for crude oil and finished petroleum products are around $700 million a day.
According to the energy expert Claudia Kemfert from the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW), a delivery stop would be manageable, at least for coal and crude oil - there are alternatives here.
The situation with natural gas is more problematic.
Germany's dependence is particularly great here, and there are only a few alternatives.
More natural gas could come via pipelines from Norway and Azerbaijan, but additional capacity is limited.
Another alternative is liquefied natural gas, known by the abbreviation LNG.
According to figures from the energy company BP, Europe imported almost 115 billion cubic meters of LNG in 2020.
Deliveries came mostly from Qatar and the USA.
17.1 billion cubic meters also came from Russia.
However, Germany faces a problem: Special terminals for ship handling are required to accept LNG deliveries and process the gas – and these do not exist in Germany, so direct import is not possible.
So far, the LNG in Germany has been obtained from terminals in Zeebrugge, Belgium, Dunkirk, France, and from the Netherlands.
Because of the Ukraine war, Chancellor Scholz recently announced the accelerated construction of two LNG terminals in Brunsbüttel and Wilhelmshaven.
A terminal in Stade is also under discussion as a location.
There are currently 37 LNG terminals across Europe, 26 of which are in EU member states.
pbe/AFP