UAE signs energy security deal with Germany

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UAE signs energy security deal with Germany

ABU DHABI: The United Arab Emirates agreed on Sunday Sep 25 an energy security deal with Germany to supply liquefied natural gas and diesel as Berlin searches for new power sources to replace Russian supplies.

The UAE's industry minister, Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, called it a landmark new agreement that strengthens the rapidly growing energy partnership between the UAE and Germany at a signing by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, according to the UAE's state news agency WAM.

Scholz was on a visit to the UAE as part of a Gulf tour that includes stops in Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

He met Emirati President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, who said on Twitter that they had discussed further opportunities for cooperation in areas including energy security, emissions reduction and climate action. The German leader welcomed the energy security agreement, WAM said.

As part of the deal, the UAE will provide an LNG cargo for delivery in late 2022, to be used in the commissioning of Germany? The WAM report added that the floating LNG import terminal at Brunsbuettel is a North Sea port.

ADNOC, the UAE state oil company, completed its first direct diesel delivery to Germany earlier this month, and will supply up to 250,000 tons of diesel per month in 2023, it said.

ADNOC reserved a number of additional LNG cargoes exclusively for German customers in 2023, it said.

Sunday was the second and final day of Scholz' Gulf tour, which he hoped would seal new energy deals to replace Russian supplies and mitigate the energy crisis resulting from Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.

He met Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Saturday, and he arrived in gas-rich Qatar on Sunday to talk with Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani.

Scholz's stop in the UAE included a tour of an environmental project at a mangrove park with Emirati climate change minister Mariam Almheiri.

Almheiri said that the discussions on Sunday would cover climate action and economic growth and that all three pillars must go hand and hand. She said we can't look at one or two of these pillars separately.

She stated Abu Dhabi's insistence on a transition away from fossil fuels.

Both the UAE and Saudi Arabia have been critics of what they describe as unrealistic transition models that have contributed to the current energy crunch.

Scholz told reporters in Abu Dhabi that his country had made progress on a number of projects here in terms of the production and purchase of diesel and gas, while he stated that he was determined to avoid energy dependence on Russia in the future.

He said that we will not be able to do anything if we are dependent on one supplier and also dependent on its decisions.

With the investments we are making in Germany and that will become reality next year, we will have an infrastructure for gas imports in Germany, such that we are no longer dependent on the specific supplier at the other end of the pipeline, as we are with a pipeline connection. His visit to Qatar came one day after France's TotalEnergies signed a new US $1.5 billion deal to expand Doha's natural gas production.

Scholz said such projects were important because they need to ensure that the production of liquefied gas in the world is advanced to such an extent that the high demand that exists can be met, without having to fall back on the production capacities in Russia that have been used so far.