FRANKFURT: Germany's natural gas import bill for the two months of January and February rose by 2.1 percent year-on-year on higher import volumes, which overrode a decline in prices, according to official data from trade statistics office BAFA.

The total cost was 4.9 billion euros ($6.8 billion) compared with 4.8 billion euros in the same period a year earlier.

The amount of gas imported in Jan/Feb rose by 6.5 percent year-on-year to 644,908 terajoules* (TJ), carrying on from a strong year-on-year volume rise which began in the final quarter of 2013 and reflecting a more severe winter than seen in 2013.

Many continental European gas prices, including those recorded by BAFA, still track crude oil prices with a time-lag of about six months.

BAFA prices are used in the domestic market to track the cost of imports and to decide whether gas is competitive compared with other fuels.

Russia accounted for 40.7 percent of deliveries in the period under review, Norwegian-origin gas accounted for 25.3 percent and the Netherlands for 29.5 percent in the two months.