Qatar signed a fifteen-year deal with Germany on Tuesday, November 29, 2022 to supply liquefied natural gas to Germany as the European economic powerhouse struggles to substitute Russian gas supplies that have been cut during the ongoing war in Ukraine.

Officials provided no dollar value for the deal, which would begin in 2026. Under the agreement, Qatar would send up to 2 million tons of the gas to Germany through an under-construction terminal at Brunsbuettel.

The agreement involves both Qatar Energy, the nation’s state-run firm, and ConocoPhillips, which has stakes in Qatar’s offshore natural gas field in the Persian Gulf that it shares with Iran.

As European countries have supported Ukraine after Russia’s invasion in February, Russia has decreased supplies of natural gas used to heat homes, generate electricity and power industry.

This has created an energy crisis that is fueling inflation and increasing pressure on companies as prices have risen.

Germany, which got more than half of its gas from Russia before the war, hasn’t received any gas from Russia since the end of August.

Germany Builds Five Gas Terminals

The country is building five liquefied natural gas terminals as a crucial part of its plan to replace Russian supplies and the first terminal is expected to go into service shortly.

Much of Germany’s current gas supply comes from or via Norway, the Netherlands and Belgium.

Germany’s strategy to prevent a short-term energy crisis also includes temporarily reactivating old oil- and coal-fired power stations and extending the life of the country’s last three nuclear power plants, which were supposed to be switched off at the end of this year, until mid-April.

German Economy Minister, Robert Habeck, who is also responsible for energy, visited Qatar in March about a month after Russia invaded Ukraine as part of the government’s effort to diversify gas supplies. Chancellor Olaf Scholz was there in September.

Habeck disclosed that he wouldn’t say much about the deal because “the political talks were always only framework talks; the companies remained in contact after that.”