Qatar to supply natural gas to Germany from 2026

Qatar will supply liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Germany from 2026 as part of a 15-year agreement signed on Tuesday, and at a stage where Berlin is seeking to replace Russian gas supplies.

The amount of this deal was not disclosed, but Qatar will send two million tons of gas to Germany through a terminal under construction in Brunsbuttel, reports the Associated Press (AP).

The deal involves Qatar Energy, the country’s state-owned company, and ConocoPhillips, which has stakes in Qatar’s offshore natural gas field in the Persian Gulf that it shares with Iran.

In connection with the sanctions imposed by European countries on Russia for invading Ukraine in February, Moscow cut off the supply of natural gas used for home heating, power generation and power generation.

This situation led to an energy crisis that fueled inflation and increased pressure on companies as prices rose.

Germany, which before the war received more than half of its gas from Russia, has not received Russian gas since the end of August.

The Germans are building five LNG terminals as a key part of their plan to replace supplies from Russia. The first ones should come into operation in the near future.

Most of Germany’s current gas supplies come from or pass through Norway, the Netherlands and Belgium.

Germany’s efforts to avert a short-term energy crisis also include temporarily reopening old coal and oil power plants and extending the life of the country’s last three nuclear power plants, which were due to shut down later this year. until mid-April.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who visited Qatar in September, welcomed the agreement, stressing that long-term control is important for Germany’s energy security.

“In general, we will make sure that we have many different countries providing our energy supply. Thus, I am sure that this is another important building block for the house that we have already built to a large extent,” emphasized Olaf Scholz.