GENEVA — Trafigura has entered into a $1.5 billion five-year loan agreement supporting a contract to supply more than 150 terawatt-hours (TWh) of natural gas to SEFE Securing Energy for Europe (SEFE), Germany's state-owned gas importer, over the next five years, the trading house said in a statement on Thursday, October 29. The first delivery is scheduled for November 1, 2026, and the gas will come primarily from Trafigura's global portfolio.

Source: Trafigura press release

The loan is supported in part by a guarantee under the German government's Untied Loan Guarantee (UFK) programme, acting through its export credit agency Euler Hermes, and was arranged by a syndicate of nine banks, with KfW IPEX-Bank as facility agent and export credit agency co-ordinator, Trafigura said. The lending banks include Commerzbank, DBS Bank's London branch, DZ BANK, J.P. Morgan, Lloyds and Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation.

Source: Trafigura press release

150 TWhtotal gas Trafigura will supply SEFE over five years — about 15 billion cubic metres
30 TWh a yearthe new annual volume, up from about 23 TWh a year under the expiring contract, SEFE said
$1.5 billionsize of the five-year loan backing the deal — yaani about 150 crore dollars, part-guaranteed by the German government
75%how full EU gas storage was in late October, per Gas Infrastructure Europe — well below seasonal norms

SEFE said annual volumes will increase significantly compared with the previous agreement, which provided about 23 TWh a year, and that the new contract further strengthens its diversified procurement portfolio and supports security of supply in Germany and across Europe, LNG Industry reported on Friday. The deal replaces a four-year Trafigura-SEFE contract that expires at the end of October.

Source: SEFE via LNG Industry

The timing is the story. Europe's benchmark gas price topped €101 per megawatt-hour on Friday for the first time since the 2022 energy crisis, as QatarEnergy's extended force majeure keeps Gulf LNG cargoes from reaching Europe and Asia and EU storage — only about 75% full, with Germany's sites below 62% — heads into winter, OilPrice reported, citing Gas Infrastructure Europe data. Berlin's willingness to guarantee the financing shows how far governments are going to lock in supply before the heating season.

Source: OilPrice

What happens next is delivery, not paperwork: the first cargoes under the new contract are due from November 1, and traders will watch whether storage draws, Norwegian outages and the missing Qatari cargoes push European prices further above the €100 line — a level households and industry across the continent have not faced since Russia's pipeline cuts in 2022.