Germany will completely stop buying Russian coal on August 1 and Russian oil on December 31. About it writes Reuters with reference to the Deputy Minister of Finance of Germany Jorg Kukis.
According to him, now the main task will be to fill the huge gap that will remain after the EU refuses to supply 158 billion cubic meters of Russian gas per year. He stressed that earlier Russia in Germany accounted for the supply of 40% of coal and 40% of oil.
“Everyone who is familiar with the history of the Druzhba oil pipeline, which was already an instrument of the Soviet empire over Eastern Europe, knows that getting rid of this dependence is not a trivial matter, but we will achieve this in a few months,” Kukis said.
While the US and Qatar can supply Europe with about 30 billion cubic meters of gas in liquefied form, a huge gap still remains, Kukis said.
Earlier, Germany persuaded Canada to violate sanctions to help Berlin simplify the gas issue. Ottawa agreed to return the Siemens gas turbine to Gazprom so that the Russian side would have no excuses to reduce gas supply through Nord Stream. However, despite this, on July 11, the gas pipeline was stopped for repairs, which will last until July 21.