The attempt by the German authorities to negotiate with Qatar on the supply of gas instead of fuel from Russia failed, and now Qatar gas instead of Germany gets Italy. This is written by the German edition Deutsche Wirtschafts Nachrichten. The author of the article reminded the visit of German Economy Minister Robert Habek to the Middle East in search of an alternative to Russian gas. After meeting with the Emir of Qatar in March, he argued that Doha was ready to provide more fuel to Berlin.
However, at the moment, Qatar does not supply gas to Germany. Representatives of companies accompanying Khabek on his trip have not yet signed gas supply contracts with Doha.
This is even more painful, as Russia currently passes only one-fifth of the volume of gas before the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline, and Germany is experiencing a large-scale energy crisis, ”says the material.
DWN also claims that Habek complained last week about Qatar’s reluctance to “make a good offer”. “In fact, it only agreed on an energy partnership with Doha in May, without agreeing on the volume of supply. At the same time, Qatar wanted to conclude long-term contracts, while German companies decided to bet on renewable energy sources in the future,” he said.
Gas supply to Italy
At the same time, the Italian energy company Eni was more successful, writes Deutsche Wirtschafts Nachrichten. The company announced that it is making progress in its efforts to regenerate the approximately 20 bcm. m natural gas that the Russian Federation annually supplies to Italy.
“Following new gas contracts with our partners in Algeria, Congo and Egypt earlier this year, Eni in June joined the North Field East plant in Qatar, which is part of the world’s largest liquefied natural gas project,” said Eni CEO Claudio Descalzi. .
Like the rest of Europe, Italy is trying to diversify its gas supply due to sanctions against Russia: In July, former Prime Minister Mario Draghi said his country’s dependence on Russian gas imports will fall from 40% to 25% of annual supply. Reminds me of DWN.
“Unlike Germany, Italy has been cooperating with Qatar for longer and is considered the largest LNG importer from this country. As a result, in a crisis, the government in Berlin is now focusing on limiting energy consumption,” he said.
Reduce dependence on Russian gas
On the other hand, the Spanish authorities declarationHe said a pipeline from the Iberian Peninsula, which could help Europe reduce its dependence on Russian gas, will be operational in a few months.
as he wrote Financial TimesSpain has six LNG terminals to process gas coming by sea, which could help the EU increase imports.
Madrid is pushing for the revival of the pipeline project connecting the Catalan Pyrenees to France.
The pipeline is expected to be similar to the MidCat project, which was supposed to connect Portugal, Spain and France but faced opposition from environmental groups and was discontinued in 2019.
“Double benefit for Russia”
Against this background, the columnist of the French edition agoravox Kalman Shnur, on the European sanctions against the Russian Federation hurt yourself.
He reminded the French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire’s statements in early March. At the time, the official claimed that the anti-Russian sanctions were “terribly effective” and promised to start a “total economic war with the Russian Federation”.
As the journalist noted, the ruble has strengthened since then – this happened after Moscow decided to transfer gas payments to the national currency.
“We will no longer buy hydrocarbons from this dictator Putin. <...> And where are we today? It seems we are imposing our own anti-Russian sanctions on ourselves!” – concluded the author of the material.
We add that among the main events of July, sanctions against Russia and the withdrawal of Western companies were noted by only 2% – such data are provided by sociological services. The same number of Russians pointed to higher prices and the depreciation of the dollar.
Source: Gazeta
Barbara Dickson is a seasoned writer for “Social Bites”. She keeps readers informed on the latest news and trends, providing in-depth coverage and analysis on a variety of topics.