Prices for diesel and hard coal on the rise amid Ukraine war
Energate messenger / Clean Energy Wire
The reduction of hard coal imports from Russia to Germany has pushed up prices significantly, the German coal import association VDKI told energate messenger. Russia reduced its exports to the country even before the attack on Ukraine, the association said, and although the lower volumes were substituted with coal from South Africa, markets are highly volatile. The price for hard coal shipments to Europe almost doubled to 264 euros since 23 February, according to the article. Germany’s economy and climate ministry maintains that hard coal will continue to come from Russia and said that reserves at power stations are sufficient to last until the end of April.
Prices for diesel are also on the rise, the German Economic Institute (IW) said. Almost 15 percent of diesel sold in Germany is from Russian refineries. Its price has risen by almost 12 cents per litre since 24 February – about twice as much as the price of petrol. Russia is not only the origin country for just over a third of Germany's crude oil imports, but is also a major supplier of processed petroleum products. German refineries are already heavily geared to diesel production but still cannot meet the demand, the IW said.
Because of Germany’s high dependency on imported fossil fuels, economy and climate minister Robert Habeck said he is opposed to an energy embargo against Russia. “That would endanger the social peace in the entire republic,” he said.
