Germany could shun Russian oil this year

Russian oil now accounts for 25 per cent of German imports, down from 35 per cent before the invasion

Germany could end Russian oil imports this year, Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Friday, signalling the urgency driving Europe's biggest economy to wean itself off energy from Russia following its invasion of Ukraine.

Scholz was responding to a journalist's question about whether he felt a sense of shame that EU countries were paying Russia billions of euros for fossil fuels.  "We are actively working to get independent from the import of (Russian) oil and we think that we will be able to make it during this year," Scholz said during a news conference in London with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

The European Union this week approved new sanctions against Russia, including a ban on coal imports starting in August. Germany has intensified efforts to reduce its exposure to Russian energy imports following Russian's invasion of neighbouring Ukraine on February 24.

Moscow calls its offensive a  "special military operation" to demilitarise its neighbour. Ukraine and Western supporters call that a pretext for an unprovoked invasion.

Russian oil now accounts for 25 per cent of German imports, down from 35 per cent before the invasion, and gas imports have been cut to 40 per cent from 55 per cent. Russian hard coal imports were down to 25 per cent from 50 per cent before the invasion.

A stoppage of Russian gas imports is tougher for Germany, which in the first quarter received 40 per cent of deliveries from Russia. Germany wants to cut the share of Russian gas to 24 per cent by this summer. But it could take until the summer of 2024 for Europe's largest economy to end its reliance on Russian gas.

"We are actively working to get independent from the necessity of importing gas from Russia," Scholz said.