Gas supply: Gas dealer Sefe pays 450 million aid to BUND back

The gas trade, gas storage and transport company Sefe, which was nationalized in the course of the energy crisis, has repaid a further around 450 million euros in aid to Germany. This said that a total of around 725 million euros were rejected to the Federal Republic, Sefe said in Berlin. Already last year, 275 million euros had flowed to the federal government. Sefe is the abbreviation of “Securing Energy for Europe” (such as securing energy for Europe). The company is one of the largest gas importers in Germany.

Sefe used to be called Gazprom Germania and was a daughter of the Russian state company Gazprom. As a result of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine and the energy crisis, the company was nationalized.

BUND had supported Sefe with 6.3 billion euros

According to the cessation of the Russian pipeline gas deliveries in 2022, the company had to procure expensive replacement deliveries in order to maintain the gas supply of industrial customers and municipal utilities. In order to enable SEFE this, the EU Commission approved in December 2022 that the federal government will bring additional equity to the company 6.3 billion euros. At the same time, Sefe was obliged to repay.

These are not completed. Another distribution is planned for 2026, the company said on request. “The exact amount depends on the business result,” it said.

BUND has to privatize Sefe

The EU Commission also determined that the BUND SEFE had to be largely privatized again by the end of 2028.

According to Sefe, Sefe supplies more than 50,000 customers, from small companies to municipal utilities and multinational corporations. The energy group employs around 2,000 people worldwide.

In a similar way, Germany’s largest gas dealer Uniper had been saved in the energy crisis. Uniper has also repaid high sums to the state.