The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

Energy crisis: Habeck argues with Qatar about a deal – is gas now becoming even more expensive?

2022-05-11T07:48:33.950Z


Energy crisis: Habeck argues with Qatar about a deal – is gas now becoming even more expensive? Created: 05/11/2022, 09:35 am By: Lisa Mayerhofer Sheikh Mohammed bin Hamad bin Kasim al-Abdullah Al Thani, Minister of Trade and Industry of Qatar, welcomes Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck. © Bernd von Jutrczenka/dpa Economics Minister Robert Habeck wants to lead Germany out of its depe


Energy crisis: Habeck argues with Qatar about a deal – is gas now becoming even more expensive?

Created: 05/11/2022, 09:35 am

By: Lisa Mayerhofer

Sheikh Mohammed bin Hamad bin Kasim al-Abdullah Al Thani, Minister of Trade and Industry of Qatar, welcomes Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck.

© Bernd von Jutrczenka/dpa

Economics Minister Robert Habeck wants to lead Germany out of its dependence on Russia through an energy partnership with Qatar.

But there are major issues with the deal.

Berlin – After the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck found what he was looking for in his search for new partners for oil and gas supplies: during his visit to Qatar in March, he agreed on a long-term energy partnership with the emirate.

Qatar is one of the world's largest exporters of liquefied natural gas (LNG).

Robert Habeck: Problems with the gas contract negotiations with Qatar

Habeck's main goal was to make Germany less dependent on Russian energy imports, but also to accelerate the switch from conventional natural gas to green hydrogen.

But now there are problems in the contract negotiations with Qatar, reports the Reuters news agency.

A conclusion of the liquid gas deal is not in sight.

There are several reasons for this: The biggest point of contention is the duration of the deal.

The news agency reports that Germany is not prepared to enter into a contract with a term of at least 20 years – and cites three people familiar with the process.

Habeck sees Germany's decarbonization goals at risk due to the length of the contracts.

The government plans to reduce Germany's CO2 emissions by 88 percent by 2040.

Qatar deal: Dispute over the gas price

But it's also about money: Qatar would like to tie the gas price to the oil price.

However, Germany would prefer to link the price to the European gas index.

A link to the oil price would lead to a high financial burden for Germany, says Felix Booth, liquid gas expert at Vortexa, the news portal Focus Online.

However, he fears that Germany will have to agree to the conditions: "Qatar has the leverage in hand." The possibilities for Germany to procure gas supplies are very limited.

Negotiations between Germany and Qatar are now expected to continue this month.

The Emir of Qatar, Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, is also traveling to Germany for this purpose.

The emirate is repeatedly criticized for the human rights situation and the conditions for foreign workers.

The Ministry of Economy has not yet commented on the Reuters report.

(lma/dpa)

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2022-05-11

You may like

News/Politics 2024-02-21T16:33:13.076Z
News/Politics 2024-02-15T12:52:19.624Z
News/Politics 2024-03-15T17:06:08.189Z

Trends 24h

News/Politics 2024-03-27T16:45:54.081Z

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.