The EU and the United States want to intensify their energy cooperation and thereby further reduce the dependence of the Europeans on Russian gas.

EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and American President Joe Biden want to present a corresponding agreement this Friday.

As a first step, the Americans are promising further deliveries of liquefied natural gas (LNG) for this year.

The "Financial Times" reported on Thursday evening that it was about 15 billion cubic meters.

This number was not initially confirmed by the EU Commission.

An EU official said it would make a substantial contribution to reducing dependence on Russian gas by two-thirds as early as 2022, as announced.

The Commission wants to introduce 50 billion cubic meters of LNG by the end of the year.

Helmut Buender

Business correspondent in Düsseldorf.

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Henrik Kafsack

Business correspondent in Brussels.

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Christian Geinitz

Business correspondent in Berlin

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Jan Hauser

Editor in Business.

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The exact amount of the deliveries ultimately also depends on how much LNG the American companies can provide.

The energy partnership is designed for the long term.

It is also about hydrogen projects.

The project had been prepared for a long time, it was said on the sidelines of the EU summit in Brussels.

It was not a reaction to Russian President Vladimir Putin's announcement that he would only accept rubles for payments for gas deliveries.

However, the announcement strengthens the EU in its intention to replace Russian gas with LNG, EU diplomats said.

“There is currently no supply shortage in Germany”

The Federal Association of Energy and Water Industries (BDEW) had previously warned on Thursday that after Putin's announcement, Germany could hardly rely on energy supplies from Russia.

"There are concrete indications that the gas supply situation is deteriorating," said Kerstin Andreae, Chair of the BDEW Executive Board.

The association, which represents 2,000 companies in the industry, called on the federal government to declare the early warning stage in the national “gas emergency plan”.

This is also supported by the energy company Eon.

The Federal Ministry of Economics, on the other hand, rejects this and sees the security of supply for gas as guaranteed - currently.

"There is currently no supply shortage in Germany," said a spokeswoman for Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens).

"But the situation must continue to be closely monitored." Putin's announcement was noted and will be "closely examined and evaluated".

Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) made a similar statement after a summit meeting of the G7 countries in Brussels: "What we have learned so far is that there are fixed contracts everywhere, in which the currency in which payment is made, too is part of the contract.

That applies then.” It usually says “Euro” or “Dollar”.

The spokesman for Scholz made it clear that he had described the contractual situation and had not made any final statement.

Scholz emphasized that the European states had made a conscious decision to limit the imports of gas,

Not to use oil and coal as part of the sanctions regime.

Habeck's spokeswoman reiterated that Putin's move "according to our information is a violation of private contracts, which are usually settled in euros."

The handling of this breach of contract will be examined.

The early warning stage is the first of three crisis stages in the gas security of supply regulation.

In principle, this makes an actual emergency probable.

The next level is the alert level: there is a disruption in the gas supply or an exceptionally high demand.

In the emergency stage, the third stage of the crisis, the gas supply can no longer cover the remaining demand: Then additional non-market-based measures should be taken.

The Russian share of all natural gas imports to Germany so far this year is estimated at 40 percent.

For the time being, no restrictions are to be expected for private customers.

"Household customers are protected by the existing regulation," said Andreae.

It will be more difficult for industrial companies: "On the part of the federal load distributor, the Federal Network Agency,

In view of Putin's announcement, some politicians in this country are counting on an energy import ban.

The Union called for a clear no to paying for deliveries from Russia in rubles in the future.

"Free Europe must not allow itself to be blackmailed," said parliamentary group leader Andreas Jung (CDU).

According to a representative survey, more than two-thirds in Germany are in favor of stopping energy imports from Russia in order to increase the pressure on the Russian government.

The Bonn Briq Institute for Behavior and Inequality, headed by the economist Armin Falk, interviewed 2,000 people.

The Federal Network Agency is coordinating the preparations for a possible worsening of the situation, in which the gas supply to industry would have to be restricted.

In that case, the authority would take control of the gas flows as a "federal load distributor".

The basis is the government's "Gas Emergency Plan", which contains general criteria for how the gas allocation should look like.

There are no shutdown plans or rankings of companies.

The supply of households would have priority.