Why Germany is hooked on Russian gas

How Germany got stuck paying for Russia's war.

Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the EU has sanctioned much of Russia’s economy, but Russia’s natural gas trade remains untouched. The EU gets nearly a quarter of its energy from natural gas, and almost half of that comes from Russia, the world’s largest gas exporter. As the EU’s largest economy, Germany is Russia’s biggest customer, paying Russia’s state-owned gas company 200 million euros. So while Germany has even sent Ukraine weapons, in a historic shift of military policy, through its gas supply Germany is helping to pay for the war it’s trying to stop.

It’s inherently hard to pivot away from piped gas. Unlike oil and coal, which can be rerouted, gas pipelines cost billions, take years to build, and physically connect producer and buyer directly, making them long-term commitments. That was the origin of Germany’s dependence on Russian gas, and over time it’s only deepened. Today, as the world tries to punish Russia through sanctions, that dependence is getting in the way.

Sources for additional reading:

Explore the world’s natural gas pipelines (and so much more!) with the Global Energy Monitor’s map:

This review of Power of Connection: Why the Russia-Europe gas trade is strangely untouched by politics by Thane Gustafson is a good summary of the strong link natural gas pipelines create between producers and buyers:

The 2009 gas dispute that became a warning for Europe is explained in detail here:

Here you can check out the EU’s sanctions on Russia since the war in Ukraine began:

And, finally, we recommend these two books for anyone who wants to go even deeper into the topic:

Russian Energy Chains: The remaking of technopolitics from Siberia to Ukraine to the European Union by Margarita Balmaceda:

[Vox]

Correction, May 18 2022: A previous version of this video said that Germany would begin constructing its first liquid natural gas (LNG) terminal in 2026. This was incorrect: at publish time Germany had already accelerated those plans and now intends to open LNG terminals sooner. We've corrected the line at 7:20.

[_TeXoN_]

We should also mention Gerhard Schröder. He is the former chancellor of Germany, who approved Nordstream just to become a board member in the Nordstream Company, Rosneft and Gazprom.
This is probably the most extreme case of lobbyism.

[Xavierpng]

"since the invasion began Germany paid €220mln..."
me: That's not actually that bad
"...a DAY"
me: 😳😳😳

[Jojonian]

also: something that was not really mentioned is how dependent other european countries are from the german gas imports from russia. The reason for this is that germany is not only importing gas for its own industry, but neighboring countries also benefit from the gas deals. Like that, germany is weirdly enough one of the most gas exporting countries in the world, with having little to no own natural gas.

[chovuse]

Missed out on Norway supplying 21% of EU gas and is second to Russia at 43%. Norway is now planning to Expand its share.

[gejbhmo]

Something that doesn’t get mentioned enough is how the German public some years ago decided our main environmental problem was nuclear energy so now all our nuclear power plants are shutting down.

[tobiwan]

Just some context:
(1) One of the main considerations was that stopping gas flows would be more damaging to Russia than to Germany (which is still true) as Russia depends on gas sales, although they make 3/4 of their ressource money from oil sales. Little consideration was given to the possibility that Russia might not care about their economy at all.
(2) Germany has 3 main suppliers (Norway, Netherlands and Russia) and both Norway and the Netherlands will still increase deliveries in the short term.
(3) Gas is used in Germany almost equally for heating and for industrial processes and unlike shown in the video, mainly in the chemicals sector. The world's largest chemicals company is sitting at the southern end of this pipeline network, producing e.g. fertilizer for agicultural production, which is also exported. And legally the industrial companies would be the ones that would have to limit their consumption, not the private households.
(4) Almost no gas is used for power production, that's why the exit from nuclear is quite irrelevant in this debate.
(5) Since the beginning of the war, Germany has exited both coal and oil from Russia and cut its share of the gas supply from 55% down to 30%.

[Hertun_Ingenten]

Brandt's foreign policy was not "Ostpolitik" it was "Wandel durch Annäherung". Ostpolitik just means "Eastpolicy", policies concerning the DDR and the Sovietunion.

[contempt]

You missed that the pipe that goes through Poland called Yamal might also stop due to Nord Stream 2 and ridiculously high prices set for Poland. Poland tries to get gas from Norway instead and shares capacity of gas terminals along with Lithuania. Poland also tried to lend some gas to Ukraine during first blackouts there through reversed flow but there's lack of infrastructure to do that on high capacity as of now.

[StevenSmith-mkfg]

It's fairly easy to understand. Russian gas is the cheapest option for Germany due to it's geographical proximity. The gas can be pipped to German plants directly. This is a big part of how Germany was able to get so wealthy and sustain it's massive industry. It's also why there is such a reluctance in Germany to detach itself from Russian gas. Germany can replace Russian energy but it will be more expensive for them. At least in the short - medium term.

[cytobii]

Regarding LNG-Terminals (7:20): The first one won't start construction in 2026, it has already. And it's supposed to be done by the end of the year. Germany has passed some major laws to ease the construction and cut back on bureaucracy in recent weeks.

[puretoronto]

Trump told Germany in 2018 to get of the dependency of Russian oil and gas at the UN. Germany laughed… how’s that working out now lol 😂

[CristanMeijer]

The Netherlands is moving away from natural gas quite quickly: old homes are using natural gas, but for new homes that's actually illegal now. New homes should be heated via heat pumps. Germany still has a lot of homes heated by oil which produces quite a bit more CO2. That's why Germany was actually moving _towards_ using natural gas in an effort to reduce CO2 emissions. It wasn't a bad idea, but that made them even more dependant on Russian gas.

[rpgspree]

So Germany had 14 YEARS to address the problems with their dependence on Russian gas and did very little about it. Bureaucracy is going to be the death of us yet...

[deinfreund]

7:21 That is wrong. The German government wants to build 3 LNG Terminals. The construction of the first one in Wilhelmshaven is starting in the next weeks. It's planned to start operating in 2023.
So 2026 is just completly wrong

[donaldmcronald]

You forgot one of the most important points: Willy Brandt's *neue* *Ostpolitik* tried to employ the fundamental idea of European peace on Russia. An interdependent relationship with Russia like we currently have within the EU was supposed to prevent Russia from threatening the EU. Stability, prosperity and peace through trade and exchange.
This assumption on Russia has turned out to be incredibly harmful, not just for the energie security of Europe but obviously peace and the wellbeing of the Ukrianian state and people.

[kooljammer]

Remember when Trump tried warning Germany becoming dependent on Russia lol

[martinbruhn]

And at the time, Brandt's Ostpolitik helped end the cold war. At the time, it was the exact right thing to do. But as we know, the USSR is no more and Russia has since the 90s become quite a different country.

[Talkrs]

To explain US people why Europe cant really get out of Russian gas instantly - it is like US would decide to close all oil production in their territory (including mexican gulf).
Doable? Sure. But you would need to build completely new deals, infrastructure etc to get it from elsewhere. Not easy.

[tanzesambamitmir]

I was looking into geothermal for my house in Germany. You'd think the government would subsidize it, especially with the Ukrainian war but big NOPE. When it was time to help out the auto industry, the government came up with the Abwrackprämie, but nothing to wean ourselves off from Russian gas.