Merz’s Gulf States trip underscores Germany’s bid to diversify energy supply

German chancellor Friedrich Merz has headed to the Gulf States in the Middle East as part of a wider bid to reduce Germany’s energy and resource dependence on the US and China, according to a report from newswire dpa published in newspaper Tagesspiegel. 

“We need this kind of partnerships more than ever at a time when great powers increasingly dominate international politics,” the chancellor said. Diversifying the supply of fossil fuels would be one of his aims during the visit of the major oil and gas producers Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, Merz added. Germany is highly dependent on its major trading partners China for raw materials and technologies needed for the energy transition, and the United States for defence technologies and liquefied natural gas (LNG). 

The chancellor’s visit that includes a meeting with Saudi Arabia’s crown prince Mohammed bin Salman comes days after the two countries signed a memorandum of understanding to increase energy cooperation during a visit from the economy minister Katherina Reiche to the kingdom. The agreement builds on a declaration of intent signed between the two countries in 2021 to cooperate on the hydrogen economy. 

During Reiche’s visit, German energy companies EnBW and VNG, and Saudi Acwa also signed a memorandum of understanding to establish “a reliable green ammonia export corridor” between the two countries. This would see cheap ‘green’ hydrogen, which would be produced in Saudi Arabia by splitting water atoms using renewable energy, mixed with nitrogen to make ammonia that would be shipped to the German Baltic Sea port of Rostock. There the ammonia could be used directly, or split back into green hydrogen which could be burned to power activities requiring high temperatures, like heavy industrial manufacturing.