Germany and Europe's dependence on Russian natural gas supplies cannot be eliminated in the short term without considerable economic damage.

Europe's largest economy is heavily dependent upon Russia for energy, and nations banks echoed concerns over possible energy disruption expressed by big names in industry in recent days.

But there was no sign on Friday of an immediate interruption. Flows remained steady through two of the three main pipelines bringing Russian gas into Europe - Nord Stream 1 across the Baltic Sea, and into Slovakia over Ukraine.

"The change in the procedure for settlements is introduced due to the fact that, in violation of international law, the foreign exchange reserves of the Bank of Russia were frozen by the EU member states," the Kremlin said.

Tim Holt highlighted the Middle East's role in providing fuels like green hydrogen to countries like Germany, where it would be an important step in its energy diversification, as it would benefit from taking hydrogen from countries in the world that have the right conditions at lower cost to produce it.

The dependence on Russian natural gas in Germany is so great that if supplies from Russia were to be stopped and the remaining quantities of natural gas distributed to Europe, Germany would have to reduce its natural gas consumption in the heating gas sector or in the industrial sector by 100 TWh per year .

Berlin said it will bring down gas usage in power generation by "possibly keeping coal-fired power plants as a security standby for longer."

Speaking to the Bundestag parliament, Scholz said German will continue to look to reduce its dependency on Russian oil and gas but warned "hasty" action could trigger a recession.

The German energy regulator Federal Network Agency (Bundesnetzagentur or BNetzA) has launched a tender for the development of 1,320 MW of onshore wind capacity.

"Nigeria is trying to deliver 4000 MW of electricity through nuclear power. We are planning to construct four units and currently we are at the bidding phase of the nuclear power programme in Nigeria,"