According to financial expert Christian Gehrke, the German government is acting “contradictory”; because, on the one hand, a state-owned company buys and sells Russian gas, and on the other hand, officials are calling for tougher sanctions against the Russian Federation.
Germany is still trading liquefied natural gas from the Russian Federation, as termination of the contract could cost the state billions of euros. Bloomberg writes about this on October 19.
Last year, Germany reportedly nationalized SEFE GmbH, which was previously a division of Gazprom. This step was taken to prevent the side effects of the energy crisis that emerged in the region after the decrease in pipeline gas supply from the Russian Federation.
SEFE still supplies liquefied natural gas to Russia under an agreement signed before the company was nationalized. We are talking about a 20-year contract for the supply of gas from a plant in Yamal in Siberia.
Thus, SEFE accepted separate shipments of Russian gas to be sent to India from the Belgian port of Zeebrugge later this month. The company does not plan to import gas from the Russian Federation to Germany or any EU country.
“Like any long-term supply contract, this former SEFE contract contains very strict penalties and liability consequences if SEFE fails to meet its contractual obligations,” a spokesperson for the firm said.
As journalists noted, the contract in question became a “headache for Germany”, as Berlin had previously directly stated its complete refusal to use Russian gas in connection with the war in Ukraine.
At the same time, violation of the agreement could cost the German budget at least 10 billion euros. This is the approximate amount of damage and fines that the Russian Federation can theoretically recover by filing a lawsuit with an international arbitration court. This fact eliminates the possibility of termination of the contract, according to people familiar with the situation.
Financial expert Christian Gehrke stated that the German government acted “contradictively” due to the situation in SEFE. Therefore, a German state-owned company buys, promotes and sells Russian gas, and at the same time the authorities demand tougher anti-Russian sanctions.
Let us recall that in May last year, Russian Gazprom announced the halt of gas supplies to Germany. This was due to the refusal of the European company Shell Energy Europe Limited to pay in rubles for Russian gas supplies.
In March this year, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced a complete halt to gas, oil and coal supplies from Russia. According to him, he did not expect that the rejection of Russia’s energy resources a year ago could be easily overcome economically.
Source: Focus
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