Beyond LNG: Berlin’s red-carpet diplomacy signals a bigger bet on Algeria

Berlin, Germany – Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune was welcomed with military honours at the historic Villa Borsig on Thursday, high above Lake Tegel, north of Berlin.Hours before the ceremony, he reminded a small group of guests, in French, just how far relations between the two countries had come.“Algeria and Germany were not in the same league,” he told the delegation about past Algerian-German relations, in remarks heard by Al Jazeera.The ceremony came two weeks before a tanker, the Tessala, landed at a floating terminal off Wilhelmshaven on Germany’s North Sea coast loaded with gas from the GL2Z liquefaction complex near Oran, Algeria.It was the first ever liquefied natural gas export to Germany from Algeria’s state energy company, Sonatrach.President Frank-Walter Steinmeier’s invitation to Tebboune to visit Germany was part of a wider business and political outreach programme designed to bolster ties between the two countries.Thirty agreements were signed between German and Algerian companies at a bilateral economic forum in Berlin, including on hydrocarbons, renewables and energy transition, pharmaceuticals, manufacturing and advanced technology.Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who met Tebboune at the Chancellery on Thursday, said the visit had been marked by “a whole series of agreements” – including on legal, investment and transparency issues – between German and Algerian companies, and he wished to see further progress on this issue.On Wednesday, Tebboune addressed members of the Algerian community at the Hotel Adlon in Berlin, where he called Germany a great friend. He also revealed that the two countries had agreed to work together on green hydrogen, gas, helium and car manufacturing industries.German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, left, and Algeria’s President Abdelmadjid Tebboune chat on the terrace of the Chancellery in Berlin on July 16, 2026, prior to bilateral talks [John MacDougall/AFP]Why Algeria, and why nowTebboune’s visit comes at a critical time for Europe, which has been desperately looking for new energy suppliers given the global tumult in recent years which has affected markets.Russia’s share of EU imports of pipeline gas has collapsed since the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, from about 40 percent in 2021 to approximately 6 percent last year.In January, the European Council adopted a regulation banning Russian LNG and pipeline gas outright from March 18, 2026, with transition periods for existing contracts.Algeria has helped make up some of this shortfall, with Norway now supplying 54.4 percent of the EU’s gaseous natural gas imports in 2025 and Algeria second at 18.5 percent. Algeria’s role appears to be increasing, with this share rising to 20 percent of EU pipeline imports in the first quarter of 2026.Merz has acknowledged this, saying that Algeria is playing “a very important contribution to Europe’s security of energy supply” and pointing out that the country also holds “significant raw-material deposits, among them natural gas, oil and rare earths”.Rare earths are among the materials Europe has spent three years trying to source from outside China and Russia.Standing beside Merz on Thursday at a joint news conference at the Chancellery in Berlin, Tebboune offered words Germany must have wanted to hear.“We are careful to be a reliable supplier — we always meet our contractual delivery obligations,” he said, and promised that Algerian supplies would not only be destined for Germany, but all of Europe.This pledge comes at a critical time for Europe, with Qatari LNG exports disrupted by the US-Israel war on Iran, after Iranian attacks on shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.The Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) now forecasts that the United States will overtake Norway as the EU’s main gas supplier in 2026.Amid these difficulties, it is convenient that Algerian gas is able to directly reach Europe via a sub-Mediterranean pipeline.“Algeria is strategically central for Europe, above