Germany takes control of the German subsidiary of Gazprom "to protect public security and order"

The German government takes control of Gazprom Germania, at least temporarily.

Federal Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) has announced that the Federal Network Agency will be appointed administrator of Gazprom Germania.

The deputy chancellor made the announcement at a short-notice news conference in Berlin on Monday.

This is a temporary solution that will be applied for the time being until September 30, 2022, Habeck clarified.

This legal order under article 6 of the Foreign Trade and Payments Law has been closely coordinated within the Federal Government and will be officially published today, Habeck said.

"The guardianship order serves to protect public safety and order and to maintain security of supply," Habeck said.

The move was "absolutely necessary" but security of supply was now guaranteed.

Berlin-based Gazprom Germania GmbH

.

In turn, Gazprom Germania owns other companies in the German gas industry.

These include the trading companies Wingas and WIEH, the gas storage operator Astora, which operates Germany's largest gas storage facility in Rehden, and a minority stake in the gas transportation company Gascade.

These gas storage facilities have been virtually empty for months.

The German government assumes that this is a deliberate move to destabilize Germany's energy supply.

Under a new law,

by early December.

The logo of the German subsidiary Gazprom Germania is still visible on its Berlin headquarters, despite the fact that last Friday, the Russian state corporation Gazprom unexpectedly announced that it had divested its German subsidiary Gazprom Germania at short notice.

"On March 31, the Gazprom Group terminated its participation in the German company Gazprom Germania GmbH and all its assets, including Gazprom Marketing & Trading Ltd," the Russian group announced on its Telegram channel.

No further details were given.

The German newspaper Handelsblatt announced the day before that German authorities were considering nationalizing the Gazprom subsidiary in the face of a possible cut off of Russian gas supplies.

"We consider that

," Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov responded to these reports from Moscow.

According to a report in

,

and transfer them to a St. Petersburg-based organization.

This could have been an attempt to prevent nationalization by the German authorities.

Russian energy companies are exempt from Western sanctions against Russia.

However, Gazprom Germania and Rosneft Deutschland have had considerable problems securing new contracts and business in Germany since the beginning of the Russian aggression against Ukraine.

Conforms to The Trust Project criteria

Know more