Donald Trump is RIGHT: Germany imports 70 per cent of its gas from Russia in a controversial deal that has enriched its former Chancellor and it will soon receive even MORE ...Daily Mail/UK, Jul 11, 2018
Donald Trump's claim that Germany imports 70 per cent of its gas from Russia at a fiery Nato summit today is correct - and the country will soon receive even more. The EU's statistics agency, Eurostat, says that Russia is responsible for up to 75% of Germany's total gas imports. And experts say that figure could dramatically increase after a new pipeline between Russia and Germany opens in two years time.
Germany already imports 55 billion cubic meters of gas from Russia via the Nord Stream pipeline and will pump another 55 billion cubic meters through the new Nord Stream 2 network. Most of the remaining 30% comes from Norway. Germany is the world's biggest natural gas importer and needs to import 92 percent of the gas it consumes.
Trump also claimed today that Germany spends 'billions and billions of dollars a year' on Russian gas. In fact, Germany's bill for Russian gas last year was 17 billion euros ($21 billion) for some 87 billion cubic meters, according to Gazprom, the state-run Russian gas company.
Donald Trump also questioned the role of the former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder who is now working for Gazprom. Schroeder signed the deal for Nord Stream in haste after being ousted by Angela Merkel in a narrow election defeat in 2005. Just weeks after leaving office, however, he started overseeing the implementation of the project for Gazprom. Schroeder took up position as head of Nord Stream AG's shareholder committee and has worked for the gas behemoth ever since.
The former politician is rumoured to have been paid millions by Gazprom and is set to pocket even more with the announcement of the second phase of the Nord Stream project. Former German Green Party leader Reinhard Bütikofer, described him as 'shameless' over the appointment. Angela Merkel, his Christian Democrat successor, said Schroeder's decision to take on the job with a Russian gas company was 'not okay'.
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Trump's criticism of the gas deal with Russia might also be an aggressive pitch for US business. The US is fast becoming one of the world's leading exporters of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) due to its bountiful supply of shale gas. Hydraulic fracturing, or 'fracking', has transformed oil and gas production in the US, allowing the industry to tap previously inaccessible reserves in shale rock.
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