Berlin, Germany | AFP | Germany wants to do without Russian oil by the end of the year, and coal in the fall, the economy minister announced on Saturday.
“Every day, almost every hour, in fact, we are saying goodbye to Russian imports,” environmental minister Robert Habeck told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper.
“If we succeed, we will be independent of Russian coal in the fall, and almost independent of Russian oil by the end of the year,” he added.
On the contrary, regarding gas, it seems more complicated for Germany to abandon imports from Russia, since it does not have the capacity to import liquid gas, although they are working on it, said the minister.
Germany currently brings a third of its oil and almost 45% of its coal from Russia, according to government statistics.
Regarding gas, in 2020 it accounted for just over 50%.
Over the last decade, Germany’s gas dependency on Russia went from 36% of total imports in 2014 to 55% now.
In that sense, the leaders of Europe’s largest economy are reluctant to the demands of Western allies (with the United States in the lead) to impose an embargo on Russian oil and gas.
Habeck reiterated his opposition to an immediate embargo on Russian energy imports, as demanded by several Eastern European countries.
This would cause, according to Habeck, supply problems for the winter (boreal) of next year, as well as an economic crisis, strong inflation, the increase in the price of energy, and the disappearance of thousands of jobs.
On Tuesday, the UK also announced that it will stop importing Russian oil and oil products by the end of 2022, but not natural gas.
