In more evidence of the realignment of the energy world following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Germany has signed a further long-term LNG purchase contract, this time with US company Venture Global.

The purchasing entity is Securing Energy For Europe (SEFE), which was born out of the nationalised assets of the former German arm of Russia’s Gazprom, with the contract being for 2.25 million tonnes of LNG per year (around 5% of Germany’s current annual consumption) for 20 years. With Germany having a goal of having cut greenhouse gas emissions by 95% by 2045, close to the end of the contract, one imagines that carbon capture and storage will probably need to be applied to some of the use of the Venture Global LNG.

At the beginning of the Russian invasion in February 2022, Germany had no LNG import capacity, but it has been quickly building such capacity, and has signed various LNG purchase contracts, including with QatarEnergy. Since December 2022, 70% of LNG imported to Germany has come from the USA.

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s energy minister has warned that when Ukraine’s supply contract with Gazprom expires at the end of 2024, it is unlikely that a new deal will be agreed. A five-year deal was agreed in 2019 for the transit of Russian gas through Ukraine to Europe through two main pipelines – Soyuz and ‘Brotherhood’ – and currently constitutes around 5% of European consumption on average. (Austria takes around 50% of its gas consumption via Ukraine.) It appears that Europe will have to further adjust its supply routes over the next 18 months.