Security of supply: the federal government wants to finance the purchase of liquefied natural gas with billions

Billions of federal funds are to be used to finance the purchase of liquefied natural gas (LNG) as a result of the Russian attack on Ukraine.

This is intended to help ensure security of supply in Germany, the Ministry of Economic Affairs announced on Wednesday on request.

The LNG gas is intended for storage.

The procurement should be carried out by Trading Hub Europe GmbH.

The federal government is providing 1.5 billion euros for this.

The deliveries are expected in Germany in the short term, it said.

The Ministry had no information on the origin.

There are several countries that export LNG.

In addition to the USA, these include Australia and Qatar.

A spokeswoman for Trading Hub Europe confirmed that the federal government had made funds available to procure LNG and store it in German gas storage facilities.

No information can currently be given about the exact details of the contract and the volume.

It also said: "We cannot currently rule out that the LNG comes from Russia."

The company Trading Hub Europe was created through a cooperation between network companies and has the role of a so-called market area manager.

Habeck wants to build up a national gas reserve

The federal funds were approved directly by the Federal Ministry of Finance, as a spokesman confirmed on Wednesday.

The Budget Committee of the Bundestag was consulted as usual.

Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) had announced in reaction to the Russian invasion of Ukraine that he would do everything possible to ensure security of supply in Germany - in the event that Russia stops energy supplies.

Germany is heavily dependent on Russia, especially for gas and coal.

Habeck also wants to build a national gas reserve.

This is to ensure that the gas storage tanks are always sufficiently filled.

Concrete specifications are planned for the filling levels of the storage facilities, which are operated by private companies.

In winter, the storage levels were historically low, according to a ministry paper.

This applies in particular to the storage facilities of the Russian state-owned company Gazprom.

This is one of the reasons why prices in short-term trading have risen sharply.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) announced in the Bundestag on Sunday that the storage volume of natural gas should be increased by two billion cubic meters via so-called long-term options.