Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what recent discussions he has had with his German counterpart on the implications for energy security of use of imports of Russian gas; and what proportion of energy demand in (a) the UK and (b) Germany was filled by imported gas from Russia on the latest date for which information is available.

Neither my rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State nor I have had recent discussions with Vice Chancellor Gabriel on the implications for energy security of the use of imports of Russian gas. We do, however, continue to monitor this issue closely, and to work hard for the reforms required to improve overall energy security in Europe through the EU Energy Union. This has been a regular agenda item at the Energy Council which all EU Member States participate in. These reforms include improving interconnection between energy markets across Europe to provide Member States with more diverse supply sources and increase resilience.

We estimate that direct gas imports from Russia account for 11% of German energy demand. The United Kingdom does not physically import any gas directly from Russia. A small amount of Russian gas may be imported through our interconnector pipelines with the Netherlands and Belgium, but this is likely to be around 1% of the United Kingdom’s demand. Similarly, Germany has gas transit links with Poland, Austria, Denmark, the Netherlands, France, Switzerland and others. We cannot definitively determine the final destination of all Russian gas due to the interconnectedness of the pipelines within the European gas market.