UAE agrees to supply gas and diesel to Germany as Scholz tours Gulf

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The United Arab Emirates agreed on Sunday to supply natural gas and diesel to Germany as part of an “energy security” deal to replace Russian supplies.

At the signing ceremony attended by German Chancellor Olaf Schultz, UAE Minister of Industry Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber called it a “landmark new agreement” that “strengthens the rapid Energy Partnership for Development”.

Scholz signed the deal during a trip to the Gulf, where he traveled to the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar in search of new energy sources.

He met UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, who tweeted that they discussed “cooperation in areas such as energy security, emissions reductions and climate action.”

The German leader said he “welcomes” the “energy security” deal, WAM said.

According to reports, ADNOC, the national oil company of the United Arab Emirates, completed its first direct diesel delivery to Germany this month and will “supply up to 250,000 tons of diesel per month in 2023”.

The first 137,000 cubic meters of LNG will be delivered in December at Germany’s new floating LNG import terminal in Brunsbüttel, near Hamburg, RWE Energy said in a statement.

ADNOC will deliver more LNG to Germany in 2023, WAM said.

Scholz’s two-day trip to the Gulf aims to strike new energy deals to replace Russian supplies and ease the energy crisis caused by Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

On Saturday, he met Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Jeddah.

He held talks on energy and investment issues with Qatari emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani in Doha on Sunday afternoon, following a visit to the UAE, according to an official statement.

However, Qatar has not announced any deal. According to German media reports, the two countries are in intense negotiations over the duration of the LNG supply contract, and Scholz said he would like to see progress.

Qatar’s controversial rights record is improving, Scholz said, but has not committed to the World Cup in the Gulf nation in November.

Scholz’s stay in the UAE included a visit to an environmental project in a mangrove park with Mariam Almheiri, UAE Minister of Climate Change.

Discussions will cover “climate action and economic growth” as well as energy supply, Almheiri said.

“The UAE believes that all three pillars must go hand in hand. We cannot look at one or two of these pillars in isolation,” she said.

The UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar have been critical of what they call an unrealistic energy transition model, which they say has led to energy shortages in Europe over the past two years.

Scholz told reporters in Abu Dhabi that his country had “made progress on a number of projects here in terms of the production and procurement of diesel and natural gas,” while adding that it was determined to avoid energy dependence on Russia.

“The fact that we depend on one supplier and depend on its decisions will certainly never happen to us again,” he said.

“With the investments that we are making now in Germany, which will gradually become a reality next year, we will indeed have the infrastructure for German gas imports, so that we are no longer directly dependent on the other side for a specific supplier at the end of the pipeline, as we use The plumbing is the same.”

Scholz wrapped up a tour of Qatar after France’s TotalEnergies signed a new $1.5 billion deal to help expand gas production in Doha.

The German chancellor said such projects were “important”.

“We must ensure that world production of liquefied gas develops to the point where it can meet the existing high demand – without having to rely on the production capacity Russia has used so far,” he said.