Germany ready to agree to oil embargo, can lower Russian gas dependence to 30% by year end

Germany has said it will support an embargo on Russian oil imports if the EU member states agree on it. Foreign minister Annalena Baerbock has confirmed that Germany has made the necessary preparations to keep up such an embargo also for years. The government’s new energy security report states that “the end of dependence on Russian crude oil imports by late summer is realistic,” and economy and climate minister Robert Habeck said at a press conference in Berlin that EU energy ministers will discuss the embargo and other options to “harm Russia in the area of oil so that they don’t make so much money with it anymore” at a meeting today (2 May). He said it would be understandable if other European countries decide they are not ready for an embargo at this point in time, and reiterated his concern that a European embargo on Russian oil could drive up the global oil price so much that “Putin ends up earning more money by selling less oil.”

Germany has already reduced its dependence on Russian crude oil from 35 percent to 12 percent; on Russian hard coal (where an embargo on new purchase agreements is in place as of 9 April 2022) from 50 percent to 8 percent, and on Russian natural gas from 55 percent to 35 percent. Russian gas was replaced by increased imports from Norway and the Netherlands, and liquified natural gas (LNG) deliveries via European ports. The government aims to have several floating LNG terminals in German ports available to receive gas by late 2022 and early 2023. The planned diversification measures should reduce the share of Russian gas imports in German consumption to 30 percent by the end of the year, the security report says.