Sefe instead of Gazprom: Berlin continues to order Russian liquefied gas

The federally owned gas trading company Sefe (Securing Energy for Europe) asked the Russian government to resume liquefied natural gas supplies in 2023, Norddeutscher Rundfunk reported in mid-May. This was preceded by a meeting between Sefe CEO Egbert Laege and Novatek CEO Leonid Michelson in Dubai in April 2023. The German government nationalized Gazprom Germania on 14 November 2022 and renamed it Sefe. In March 2023, the then Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck declared that German companies would no longer buy Russian gas. Gazprom Germania was founded in 1990 as a German subsidiary of the Russian Gazprom Group. Until 2022, the Berlin-based gas trader was 100% owned by Gazprom. In April 2022, the Federal Network Agency placed the company under trusteeship. Sefe is now Germany's second-largest gas importer and employs around 2,000 people. Uniper - also nationalized by the federal government since December 2022 with a 99.1% stake - is the largest. In May 2023, a Sefe subsidiary wrote to its Russian business partners asking for "temporary permission" to resume operations. A few days later, the Russian news agency TASS reported the lifting of the Russian sanctions imposed on Sefe on May 3. Since then, Yamal LNG has once again been flowing to Sefe from Siberia. Russian pipeline gas has no longer played a role since the end of Nord Stream deliveries in 2022. Contractually India, de facto Europe The Yamal liquefied gas is contractually destined for the Indian state-owned company Gail - the Indians signed a 20-year contract with Gazprom in 2012. Sefe is to supply up to 2.85 million tons annually. Sefe compensated for the supply shortfall in 2022 and 2023 with a settlement payment of 285 million US dollars, around 250 million euros. Supplies have been running again since March 2023, partly with replacement quantities from other suppliers. The analysis by the non-governmental organization Urgewald, based on ship data from Kpler analysts, shows a different finding: the majority of Yamal shipments remain in Europe. In 2025, 15 out of 19.7 million tons of Yamal LNG reached European ports. tons of Yamal LNG reached European ports. This corresponds to 76.1% of total production, compared to 75.4% in the previous year. According to Urgewald calculations, Russia earned 7.2 billion euros from this, and a further 2.88 billion euros in the first quarter of 2026. France was the largest EU buyer of Russian liquefied natural gas in 2025 with 6.3 million tons via Dunkerque and Montoir. Belgium followed with 4.2 million tons via Zeebrugge and Spain with 2.8 million tons. In February 2026, 100% of Yamal shipments reached EU terminals for the first time. Not a single ship called at China or other Asian markets. Logistics is driving this trend: since the beginning of the Hormuz crisis, freight costs to the south have been rising. Sefe Yamal cargoes are unloaded in European ports and Gail receives replacement volumes via spot markets. Buying more instead of minimum purchase Sefe purchases the liquefied natural gas from a 2015 contract between Gazprom Germania and the Novatek subsidiary Yamal LNG. The contract runs until 2038 and stipulates a minimum purchase of 3.9 billion cubic meters per year. In 2024, however, Sefe purchased 5.66 billion cubic meters - 1.76 billion cubic meters above the contractual obligation. This is based on data from the EU energy regulator ACER. The purchase pays off economically. Sefe's pre-tax profit rose to €1.13 billion in 2024, more than twice as much as in 2023 (€430 million). The Yamal contract is priced below the European spot level, which makes the additional purchase lucrative for Sefe. Leonid Michelson himself is on the sanctions lists of the USA, the UK and Canada, but not the EU. Green Party MP Anton Hofreiter called the Sefe deal "politically stupid". Economist Guntram Wolff from the Brussels-based Bruegel Institute spoke of "real disappointment": every cubic meter of gas helps "the Russian war industry." The EU will ban Russian LNG from short-term contracts from 25 April 2026. Long-term contracts such as the Yamal deal will be banned from January 1, 2027. The requirements are based on the 19th sanctions package from October 2025, and the winners are US exporters such as Cheniere and Venture Global as well as Qatar. Both suppliers are likely to divide the Yamal share of 14.3% of EU liquefied natural gas imports between them. This article was prepared for the German-Russian Chamber of Commerce Abroad. The post Sefe instead of Gazprom: Berlin continues to order Russian liquefied gas appeared first on ostwirtschaft.de.