The fact that Germany made itself massively dependent on Russian natural gas in the past is seen today as a big mistake by politicians and businesspeople.

At least since the Russian attack on Ukraine, it has become clear how vulnerable Vladimir Putin is to blackmailing Europe's largest economy.

A qualifying argument can be heard again and again as a justification from both politicians and company bosses: the cheap Russian pipeline natural gas has made German industrial companies successful and ensured prosperity and growth.

But is that even true?

Johannes Pennekamp

Responsible editor for economic reporting, responsible for "The Lounge".

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A new data analysis raises serious doubts: According to this, German companies have not paid less for their gas imports than other countries on average in the past, but even more.

The economist Daniel Gros writes in an article for the "Project Syndicate": "In the last ten years, German industry has paid about 10 percent more for natural gas than its competitors in other major European economies."

From a Russian point of view, business is great

The scientist, who works for the Brussels think tank Center for European Policy Studies (CEPS), relies on data from the European statistics authority Eurostat on the average cost per kilowatt hour of natural gas for customers from the economy, which does not include taxes.

The bottom line is that "Russia has received a non-economic advantage - Germany's dependence on its gas supplies - almost at zero cost".

Conversely, Germany has lost its energy independence without gaining any noticeable economic advantage.

Gros supports his thesis that German companies have not had any particular competitive advantage through imports from Russia with another observation.

The so-called gas intensity, i.e. the ratio of the gas used to the country’s economic output, is only about half as high in Germany as the global average.

Gas intensity is "significantly below that of the United States and many other developed countries, including Japan and South Korea," Gros writes.

German prosperity is therefore not particularly dependent on gas.

In Berlin, leading politicians of the traffic light coalition reacted.

Christian Dürr, leader of the FDP parliamentary group, told the FAZ: “The available figures confirm the impression that the federal government led by the Union should have freed itself from its dependency on Russia much sooner.

That was a big mistake.” The Federal Chair of the Greens, Ricarda Lang, said: “16 years of Union-led governments have made us dependent on Russian gas and thus on the warmonger Vladimir Putin.” Eliminate dependence on Russia.

Meanwhile, despite the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine and several EU embargoes, German customers continue to transfer large sums to Russia.

In terms of volume, Germany imported less from Russia in the first six months of the year, but because energy prices have risen sharply, mainly as a result of the war, payments totaled 22.6 billion euros - 51.3 percent more than in the previous year, the writes Federal Statistical Office on Friday in its half-yearly balance sheet.

Energy suppliers and industry also continued to stock up on Russian coal before an EU import embargo took effect on Thursday of this week.

In March, the month before the EU decision, Germany imported around 1.5 million tons of coal from Russia and paid a good 340 million euros for it.

In June, the last month for which the Federal Statistical Office can provide figures, it was still 1.3 million tons, for which German customers paid almost 450 million euros due to the sharp rise in prices.

Compared to the previous year, this corresponds to an increase of 240 percent.

The EU-wide data, which are only available for May so far, show a much higher coal bill in that month than in previous months.

Payments by German buyers for oil and gas to Moscow rose 30 percent year-on-year in May and 15 percent in June, even though Russia had already begun gradually cutting back supplies.

From a Russian point of view, business is great.

The most important raw material for the country is not natural gas, but oil.

A new report by the International Energy Agency shows that oil production in Putin's vast empire this July was just 3 percent below pre-war levels.

Related revenue last month: $19 billion.

Although export volumes to Europe, the United States, Japan and Korea have declined since the beginning of the war, increased shipments to China, India, Turkey and other countries have cushioned the losses.

In its sixth package of sanctions, the EU issued an import ban on Russian oil, which is delivered by tanker.

However, this ban will not take full effect until next year.