Germany will stop buying russian coal on August 1 and oil on December 31
Germany will completely stop buying russian coal on August 1 and russian oil on December 31
Deputy Minister of Finance Jörg Kukies stated this, the EP reports.
As he noted, the critical task for the future will be to fill the enormous gap that will remain when the EU gives up 158 billion cubic meters of gas annually. That's how much russia supplies to the European Union.
"In a few weeks, we will stop using russian coal," he said at the Sydney Energy Forum.
The Australian government and the International Energy Agency jointly organized the forum.
According to Kukies, russia used to supply Germany with 40% of coal and 40% of oil.
"For everyone familiar with the history of the Druzhba oil pipeline, which was already a tool of the Soviet empire over Eastern Europe, getting rid of this dependence is not a trivial matter. But this is what we will achieve in a few months," said Kukies.
Germany is rapidly developing LNG import terminals to help fill the gas supply gap.
However, the deputy minister emphasized that although the United States and Qatar can supply about 30 billion cubic meters of gas in LNG to Europe, this still leaves a considerable gap.
Earlier in July, the President of the European Commission warned of the danger of completely stopping russian gas supplies to the EU.
Planned works for ten days began on the Russian Nord Stream-1 gas pipeline, resulting in the supply of gas to Germany through it completely stopped.
The head of the International Energy Agency (IEA), Fatih Birol, advised Europe to urgently prepare for the fact that russia will completely cut off gas supplies in the winter.
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