Russian oil still finds its way to Germany, while the country seeks to replace Russian gas with Ukrainian biomethane.

Following the attack on Ukraine, EU oil operations with Russia were prohibited. However, according to Süddeutsche Zeitung, although Russian oil can no longer be imported into Germany, the country’s main customs office issued a directive in early September for “unimpeded” oil passage for Rosneft Deutschland. This directive effectively allowed the German division of Rosneft to import crude oil without additional checks for possible sanctions evasion. Germany supposedly exports oil from Kazakhstan, but the Kazakh oil field belongs to the Russian Lukoil company.

At the same time, a few German organizations came up with the idea of accelerating the development of biogas exports from Ukraine to the EU to reduce the dependence on Russian gas, writes Deutsche Welle. There are calls for the immediate development of this industry, despite the threat of shelling. Analysts believe the enemy is not interested in biogas plants, which can help convince investors to invest, primarily because these installations’ construction is not expensive.