German Economy Minister Robert Habeck denounced the request of "friendly" countries, led by the United States, from Germany for "imaginary" prices for gas supplies in order to compensate for the halt in Russian shipments.

 "Some countries, even friendly ones, sometimes get ridiculous prices," the German official said in an interview with the Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung newspaper on Wednesday.

 Habeck stressed that "this poses a problem," calling on the European Commission to "discuss" this with these countries.

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  Since the start of the Russian military operation in Ukraine, Moscow has reduced gas supplies to Germany before stopping them in early September, and Russian gas imports represented 55 percent of the country's supplies before the conflict.

 To ensure energy security and maintain its gas-intensive industry, Berlin is seeking alternative sources and has significantly increased purchases of liquefied gas, but it is very expensive to import.

Germany, like the entire "old continent", resorted in particular to the United States, which increased liquefied natural gas exports to Europe from 28 percent to 45 percent between 2021 and 2022.  So Habeck spoke of American suppliers in particular.

 "The United States turned to us when oil prices rose sharply (...) I believe that such solidarity would also be beneficial to reduce gas prices," the minister said.