German gas importer VNG to apply for state aid as energy crisis intensifies

VNG, one of Germany's biggest importers of Russian gas, will on Friday ask the German government for aid to keep going and absorb accumulating losses the group has incurred as a result of lower deliveries from Moscow, parent EnBW said.

VNG, which is 74.21%-owned by German utility EnBW, has two long-term Russian gas contracts with a volume of 100 terawatt hours (TWh): one with Nord Stream 1, which is majority-owned by Gazprom, and one with Gazprom Germania, which has been under German trusteeship since April.

EnBW has said the total potential damage from these two contracts "lies in the low single-digit billion euro range".

"The measures are directed at absorbing the currently accumulating significant losses from the replacement procurement of natural gas and at enabling business operations to continue," said EnBW in a statement.

"Ongoing talks between VNG AG with its shareholders and the Federal Government on options for stabilisation of the company continue in parallel," it added.