Germany warns ports against accepting Russian gas shipments

The ministry has told the Deutsche Energy Terminal not to take any Russian LNG shipments after it was warned of a planned shipment, according to a report in the Financial Times. 

The cargo was expected to arrive at the Deutsche Energy Terminal’s Brunsbüttel facility, but the company has now been told not to accept shipments until further notice. 

Germany has revealed that this decision was made to protect public interests, especially as the Russia-Ukraine war continues.

Despite the country being the largest European importer of Russian gas – especially through pipelines – before the war, Germany has been taking steps to reduce its dependence on Russia. This is mainly by establishing LNG terminals, which would allow gas shipments to reach Germany by sea. 

According to the ministry, the efforts would be in vain if ports are still able to receive shipments of Russian gas. 

LNG is likely to see a boom in the coming months, as the EU considers importing more of it from the US, to wean itself further from Russian LNG. 

EU continues to import Russian LNG despite criticism

Despite its sanctions on Russia for the Ukraine invasion, the EU has continued to import Russian LNG. According to the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air, some 20% of the EU’s total natural gas in the first half of this year came from Russia. This was a rise of 4% from the same period last year.

A large amount of the gas is being laundered through third-party countries such as Turkey and Azerbaijan. That is mainly because significant parts of critical gas infrastructure in countries such as Azerbaijan are owned by Russian energy companies, including Lukoil, which already faces US sanctions. 

Although Russian LNG has already been banned by the UK, other European countries such as Spain, France and Belgium are continuing to import it, mainly because of long-term contracts that are difficult to break.

Germany has also stopped directly importing LNG from Russia since the war, although it still receives Russian LNG indirectly through France. 

The EU has already faced heavily criticism for its poor implementation of Russian sanctions, despite rolling out the 14th package of measures against Russian oil recently, implemented in June 2024. 

A number of Russian companies and individuals have been circumnavigating these sanctions, mainly by using third party countries such as Turkey, Kazakhstan, the UAE and Kyrgyzstan to set up shell companies, through which the deals are done.