Commodity trading giant Trafigura has agreed a $3bn German government-backed loan for gas supplies.
The loan, jointly arranged and underwritten by Deutsche Bank and another international bank and syndicated to a number of participating banks, will support Trafigura to deliver “substantial volumes” of gas into the European gas grid, and ultimately into Germany, over the next four years.
Trafigura said it would supply the gas to Securing Energy for Europe (SEFE), which was recently recapitalised by the German government.
The first gas delivery took place on November 1, 2022 and Trafigura will primarily use existing quantities from its global gas and LNG portfolios to help secure gas supplies to SEFE.
Berlin massively stepped up efforts to secure natural resources following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Germany recently secured LNG supply deal from Qatar via ConocoPhillips which will see deliveries of about 2m tons of liquified gas annually over 15 years, starting in 2026.
Europe’s largest economy has locked in five floating storage and regasification units (FSRUs), two from Norway’s Höegh LNG, another pair managed by Greece’s Dynagas and one from US-based Excelerate Energy. One privately financed FSRU is also being set up by Deutsche ReGas in the industrial port of Lubmin. When operational, the six floating terminals are expected to cover around one-third of Germany’s current gas demand.
