'Germany dependent on energy imports, but not from Russia’: German Fin Min

Berlin: Germany is dependent on energy imports, but “not from Russia”, said German finance minister Christian Linder, saying that his country has completely diversified its energy infrastructure since Vladimir Putin began ‘special military operation’ in Ukraine on February 24. “Yes, of course Germany is still dependent on energy imports, but today, not from Russian imports but from global markets,” Linder was reported as saying by BBC when he was asked if Germany had found new sources of energy. For the unversed, Russia stopped exporting gas to its largest customer of energy commodities Europe after sanctions were imposed by EU on Moscow for its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Why Germany stopped importing gas from Russia? Till August 2022, Germany imported around half of its gas and more than a third of its oil before Russia cut off the energy supply to the country. In its bid to find alternate sources of energy, Germany reopened coal-fired power plants, delayed plans to shut down its three remaining nuclear power plants and increased the capacity to store natural gas imported from countries including the US and Norway. As per a report by Statista, Germany shipped over 1.1 million metric tons of crude oil from Russia in November 2022. The volume imported were approximately 51 per cent lower than November 2021. Germany builds LNG terminal Linder in his address at the World Economic Forum (WEF) 2023 in Davos, Switzerland, mentioned about the speed with which a new liquefied natural gas terminal had been built in the country. The new LNG gas terminal had been built in the country in record of around eight months and more infrastructure investments were planned, the foreign minister said. “This is only [one] example of the enormous change in German policies. We have understood that we have to foster our competitiveness after the era of Chancellor [Angela] Merkel. That era was focused on, well, strengths of the past, and now we are developing strengths of the future,” he said. Read all the  Latest News ,  Trending News ,  Cricket News ,  Bollywood News , India News  and  Entertainment News  here. Follow us on  Facebook,  Twitter and  Instagram.