German gas importer Sefe: current funds insufficient for procurement

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Sefe, the German gas importer formerly known as Gazprom Germania, said funds made available by the government to replace lacking Russian volumes on the spot market were not enough, adding Berlin was working out the company’s ownership issues.

“We cannot fully fund the re-procurement with the funds now available,” Sefe’s managing director Egbert Laege said during the Handelsblatt Gas summit, adding the company was supporting Berlin in its efforts to find a solution.

Gazprom Germania was ditched by Gazprom earlier this year and put under German trusteeship as a result to avoid the collapse of the company. It has secured a 9.8 billion euro ($9.4 billion) credit line from state lender KfW to keep buying gas.

Sources told Reuters last week that the government was considering a capital cut at Sefe and buying in as part of a move to nationalise the company, which would result in the expropriation of Sefe’s Russian owner.

Laege’s comments come less than a week after Berlin’s decision to nationalise Uniper, formerly Germany’s largest importer of Russian gas, in a bailout that has so far totalled 29 billion euros.

($1 = 1.0391 euros)

(Reporting by Christoph Steitz; Editing by Madeline Chambers and Miranda Murray)