Moscow: the EU will never be able to free itself from Russian gas
The European Union will not succeed in its efforts to stop imports of Russian natural gas by giving EU member states the power to cut off these supplies, Maria Zakharova, spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, said on Tuesday .
An EU decision to allow member states to block imports of Russian natural gas would only result in a faster redirection of Russian gas to emerging markets, Reuters quoted Zakharova as saying at a news conference on Tuesday.
The European Union has drawn up a legislative proposal to allow member states to ban Russian and Belarusian companies from booking capacity on gas pipelines in the bloc in a bid to further reduce the EU's intake of Russian gas, the Financial Times reported last week. A form of extreme pressure to block the transit of Russian gas.
According to the FT article , the proposal will also include access to LNG terminals in the EU.
Another aspect of the legislation currently under discussion is to allow European companies that have existing contracts with Russian or Belarusian gas companies to terminate their contractual obligations without having to pay the respective penalties, according to an anonymous source in Brussels who spoke to the FT.
According to the document, seen by the FT, EU members will be allowed to “partially or, where justified, completely limit” infrastructure access to gas operators from Russia and Belarus “where necessary to protect their essential security interests ” .
EU imports of Russian gas via pipeline may be very low compared to historical averages, but imports of Russian LNG are booming.
About 21% of Russian LNG volumes heading to the European Union are transshipments, which are not included in official import data and therefore ignored by EU policymakers, the Institute for Energy Economics and Analysis said financial institution (IEEFA) at the end of last month.
“Transshipped cargoes arriving at LNG terminals in Europe are often not included in official import data and therefore ignored by policymakers,” Ana Maria Jaller-Makarewicz, chief energy analyst on IEEFA's European team, wrote in an analysis .
The solution for Moscow would be simple: LNG travels by ship, and these ships could simply go elsewhere, for example to Pakistan or China. The effectiveness of the European bloc would be almost nil. giusegiuse
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The article Moscow: the EU will never be able to free itself from Russian gas comes from Economic Scenarios .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/mosca-la-ue-non-riuscira-mai-a-liberarsi-dal-gas-russo/ on Wed, 13 Dec 2023 06:40:53 +0000.