More Than 150 TWh of German Gas in Trafigura-Syge Deal
Key Facts
Trafigura has secured financing backed by a German credit guarantee to enable it to supply more than 150 terawatt-hours of natural gas to SEFE over 5 years, according to a statement from KfW IPEX-Bank. Deliveries are due to begin on November 1, 2026, the statement said. The deal comes as the company says it will offset part of the decline in gas supplies and support security of supply and the resilience of energy infrastructure in Germany and Europe. The financing is backed by an untied financial loan guarantee from German export credit agency Euler Hermes. Trafigura is expected to supply SEFE with gas primarily from its global portfolio.
The agreement links trade finance with contracted gas flows, with the credit guarantee providing financial support for a supply deal spanning several years. KfW IPEX-Bank’s statement puts the supply volume at more than 150 terawatt-hours over 5 years, but does not detail the annual delivery schedule. The first specified date in the agreement is November 1, 2026. The lender says the gas will come primarily from Trafigura’s global portfolio, placing execution of the contract within its gas trading business. The stated purpose of the arrangement is to offset declining supplies and strengthen energy security, not to address a previous storage shortfall.
The new agreement follows an earlier arrangement between Trafigura and SEFE announced in 2022, which included a $3 billion loan backed by the German government to secure gas supplies. That arrangement covered deliveries over 4 years, according to a Trafigura statement. The agreements differ in duration: the current contract runs for 5 years, while the earlier arrangement ran for 4 years. The comparison shows the continued use of government-backed financing to facilitate gas supplies to the German company. The current agreement statement does not provide details that would allow its financing value to be compared with that of the 2022 arrangement.
Data from Germany’s Federal Network Agency provides context on the size of the gas market targeted by the agreement. Germany’s consumption reached 864 terawatt-hours in 2025, up about 2.2% from 845 terawatt-hours in 2024, but remained about 13.5% below the 2018–2021 average. Gas imports reached 1,031 terawatt-hours in 2025, according to preliminary data. Norway was the largest supplier, with a 44% share, followed by the Netherlands at 24% and Belgium at 21%. Germany imported 106 terawatt-hours through liquefied natural gas terminals, equivalent to 10.3% of total imports.
Germany’s Federal Network Agency said gas supplies in the country are currently stable and secure, and that its assessment of the risk of supply constraints remains low. At the same time, the agency is monitoring the requirement for gas storage levels to reach 30% on February 1, 2027. In a move to diversify supplies, SEFE signed a 20-year agreement to buy 1 million tonnes a year of liquefied natural gas from the Ksi Lisims project in Canada, with deliveries expected to begin in the early part of the next decade. The company said the deal expands its diversified global liquefied natural gas portfolio. SEFE says it supplies more than 200 terawatt-hours of gas and electricity annually to more than 50,000 customers and is owned by the German government.