Germany has cut its reliance on Russian crude oil from 35% to 12% and will take efforts in the next days to replace the remaining supply to the Russian-operated Schwedt refinery, according to the economics and climate minister. As Gazprom halted natural gas deliveries to Poland and Bulgaria due to their “failure” to pay in roubles, EU and German lawmakers declared that Vladimir Putin’s warning shot should not worry governments since contingency measures had been put in place.
Germany will lay the groundwork to become independent of imported Russian oil in the next days, said Economy and Climate Minister Robert Habeck following a visit to Poland on April 26. Since the start of Russia’s conflict against Ukraine, Germany has cut its reliance on Russian oil imports from 35 percent to 12 percent, according to the minister.
All major German refineries, with the exception of the Rosneft-operated PCK refinery in eastern German Schwedt, were described by Habeck as having made measures to wean themselves off of Russian crude oil imports. The Russian-owned Rosneft refinery, which obtains its crude through a pipeline link with Russia, “clearly has no interest in processing anything other than Russian oil,” according to Habeck. Alternative crude oil deliveries to Schwedt might come via the port of Rostock, and the Polish government had promised to assist with supplies – but only provided it didn’t mean helping to keep Rosneft alive, according to Habeck. “So, we’re talking about a scenario where Rosneft is no longer the operator of the Schwedt refinery,” Habeck said.
The government’s goal in the next days would be to find a solution for Schwedt, according to a representative for the economics ministry. “That implies we’ll have discovered an option to solve Schwedt’s hard dilemma in a few days,” she added. “That does not imply that we will be out of Russian oil in a matter of days.”
Greenpeace, an environmental organization, said that the government was “finally” taking action. “Germany cannot continue to pour billions more into Putin’s fund for oil, even when there are immediate alternatives,” said Greenpeace transport expert Marion Tiemann. The government should now do everything possible to save oil. “Promoting consumption today with a billion-euro gasoline refund that mostly Favors corporate vehicles is preposterous,” she continued, alluding to the government’s intentions to decrease fuel taxes.
Germany is in Favor of a progressive oil embargo.
Germany’s government is ready to support a progressive embargo on Russian oil, which the European Union may vote on in the coming days. Germany, according to Minister Habeck, would be able to weather a Russian oil embargo with some additional preparedness. “There would almost probably be regional bottlenecks, increased pricing, and local disruptions of supply,” he added. “We can’t claim nobody would notice, but it wouldn’t be a total disaster either.”
Weaning Germany off Russian gas is more difficult than coal and oil, but the government was working on constructing new infrastructure with an emphasis on obtaining supply of liquefied natural gas to accelerate the end of the dependency.
Russian-operated energy infrastructure taken over?
The government announced a revision of the Energy Security Act on Monday, April 25, sharpening the instruments it may use to rapidly seize control of essential energy infrastructure if it is run in a manner that jeopardizes supply security. The guidelines empower the government to impose trusteeship on corporations that operate key infrastructure. Expropriation of such enterprises is also a possibility if supply security cannot be secured in other ways. Oil refineries in the east of Germany are not linked to supply routes and pipelines in the west. The Schwedt business also serves the western part of Poland.
This may be very obvious, but accelerating the energy transition and investing more in renewable energy is the only way the world can stop depending on Russian oil and gas, but also on fossil fuels in general, and we are slowly getting there. However, as soon as you read “renewable energy,” you probably thought of either solar or wind energy, but they come with many issues and have many shortcomings, so what’s the alternative, you may ask?
Neutrino: the future’s inexhaustible fuel
Thanks to neutrinos and other kinds of non-visible radiations, humanity now has a long-awaited and trustworthy solution to the current energy crisis. That solution is neutrinovoltaic technology, which is developed by the incredible Neutrino Energy Group, whose soul goal for the past years has been to harness the power of neutrinos and other types of non-visible radiations to supplement the energy now produced by renewable energies such as solar and wind.
As opposed to other renewable energy sources in terms of efficiency and dependability, neutrinovoltaic technology does not have the same shortcomings. Due to the fact that neutrinos are able to pass through almost every known material, neutrinovoltaic cells do not require exposure to sunlight in order to work effectively. They are appropriate for use both indoors and outdoors, as well as underwater, making them very versatile.
Furthermore, they are not negatively affected by snow or other inclement weather because of the simplicity with which they can be shielded while they produce electricity. Because neutrinovoltaic cells do not depend on visible light for their operation, they can continue to create energy 24/7.
In addition to making, it possible to develop reliable autonomous sources of energy supply, neutrinovltaic technology will provide mankind on a global scale with a new environmentally friendly source of inexpensive and safe energy, freeing us from the dictates of not only resource supply companies, but also oil and gas corporations, through their widespread adoption into our everyday lives. And this isn’t just another technical breakthrough; it’s a major change in the way we get our energy. This will have a big impact on both the economic growth of our civilization and the environmental well-being of our planet in the future.