By Christoph Steitz and Tom Käckenhoff

FRANKFURT (Reuters). Germany’s EnBW said that Russia’s Vladimir Putin will be its president and it would not sign any energy supply agreements. The statement came in reaction to Moscow’s continued invasion of Ukraine.

Frank Mastiaux stated to journalists that Russia will not be able to sign any supply deals with Russia in the future under his leadership at an annual conference of the group. The announcement came four weeks after Ukraine’s war began, which Moscow called a “specially military operation”.

EnBW is Germany’s third largest energy company in terms of market value. However, it has increased efforts to reduce Russian coal and natural gas supply but stated that it couldn’t make up the sudden stop to imports. This is similar to larger competitors RWE and E.ON.

After reviewing full-year results, Mastiaux explained that it was not possible to completely replace procurement in case of Russian gas loss.

Mastiaux added that Germany would continue to depend on its gas imports for some period of time. He also welcomed Robert Habeck, the economy minister’s efforts to find liquefied (LNG), from Qatar.

EnBW got 3.6million tonnes (or 86%) of its hard coal supplies from Russia. He said that EnBW started diversifying procurement in 2021 and the existing stocks will continue to ensure sufficient supply into the next year.

EnBW also spoke out on gas. It said 20% of 495 Terawatt Hours (TWh). The group has VNG as its division. EnBW added that these volumes will drop from 2023.

Thomas Kusterer from EnBW Finance stated that VNG held two contracts with Russian suppliers. One contract had a volume limit of 35 TWh and was to end in 2022. Another 65 TWh contract will run until 2030.