On May 22, Olaf Scholz started a three-day tour of Africa in Senegal—his first since becoming the chancellor of Germany—and said his country wants to help develop natural gas projects off the coast of west Africa.

Germany is Europe’s largest economy but its local gas production caters to only 5% of annual demand, making it dependent on imports from Europe, especially Russia, for the rest.

With Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine causing Germany to halt imports from Russia and suspend the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline (which was supposed to take gas from Russia to Germany), Scholz’s government is exploring alternatives for gas supply.

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