According to the “Correctiv” platform, the German leader in the sector is also co-insuring a Belgian company that transports Russian gas to Europe – Axa is also involved
Allianz presents itself as a pioneer when it comes to climate protection and even scored an impressive nine out of ten points for excluding coal. However, the situation is different when it comes to excluding oil and gas. In this case, the insurer only manages to achieve a score of 2.9 out of ten. This is a problem for almost all insurers in this sector as exclusions in oil and gas underwriting are not yet well established in the sector.
According to research by the network CORRECTIVE reported by Versicherungsbote, Allianz is coinsuring a Belgian company that supplies Russian gas to Europe through pipelines and LNG terminals. The French Axa is also involved. As a rule, such expensive risks are insured by consortia. It’s not just about the climate impact of gas transportation. He is also accused of helping to finance Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. CORRECTIV refers to internal documents analyzed together with the French NGO Reclaim Finance.
Specifically, this is the Belgian company Fluxys, which operates the liquefied natural gas sector, including the LNG terminals in Zeebrugge, Belgium, and Dunkirk, France. According to research by ARD Monitor, icebreaking tankers still regularly land here to transport gas from Russia’s Yamal to Europe: an island region of Siberia known for its wealth of natural resources and extreme cold. Monitor analyzed the movement profiles of Russian tankers for this purpose. According to research, the companies supplying the gas are owned by Russian oligarchs with close ties to the Kremlin. According to expert estimates, gas worth twelve billion euros is transported to Europe every year from Russia. Money that also fills Russia’s war chest.
In July 2023, more than a year after the start of the war in Ukraine, Allianz took out a corporate general insurance policy for Fluxys against “terrorism and political violence” with other insurers, CORRECTIV reports, citing documents it has seen. In addition to Allianz, the French insurer AXA is also involved. These insurance policies provide for payouts if Fluxys’ facilities, such as LNG terminals or gas pipelines, are damaged by acts of war or sabotage, for example. Without this insurance coverage, no gas could be transported from Russia to Europe.
This is not prohibited. When the EU adopted the latest package of sanctions against Russia, gas supplies were expressly excluded – on the basis of the “tense supply situation”. The German government has not pushed for sanctions on Russian gas supplies either. The German government could not even rule out the possibility that Russian gas would continue to reach Germany via neighboring European countries, at least in small quantities. It is mainly countries like Hungary that are still heavily dependent on Russian energy supplies and have insisted that Russian oil and gas should not be subject to EU sanctions.
Allianz specifies, however, that “all sanctions imposed by the EU or the United States against Russia are applied in full.” In general, Allianz has already withdrawn from the Russian market in 2022 and sold stakes in the Russian insurance sector, the spokeswoman said. Furthermore, Allianz no longer insures special risks and companies in Russia.
However, Russian gas continues to flow abundantly to Europe and the EU. According to an analysis of data by the non-governmental organization Urgewald, a total of 121 cargo ships were used to transport gas from Yamal to Zeebrugge and 37 to Dunkirk between February 24, 2022 and March 2024. During this period, more than 11 million tons of liquefied gas were transported from Yamal alone to the EU. Additionally, nearly one million tons of liquefied gas were delivered from Russia’s Vysotsk LNG terminal to Zeebrugge and Dunkirk.
