The EU wants to cut gas contracts with Russia. European entrepreneurs hope to import it

The European Union is seeking legal ways to terminate long-term natural gas supply contracts with Russia's Gazprom without having to pay large penalties, the Financial Times reported , citing European Commission officials who said the main option was to declare force majeure.

“If the idea is not to pay Russia, then [paying compensation] would undermine the whole purpose,” one such official, who was not named, told the FT.

The European Union has had great difficulty stopping importing Russian gas. While gas flows through pipelines have been decimated, especially after the Nord Stream bombing and the expiration of the transit deal with Ukraine, LNG imports from Russia have soared, despite efforts by EU officials to reduce them and eventually stop importing Russian hydrocarbons into the bloc.

Arctic LNG

Two pushes in opposite directions

The Financial Times report comes as business leaders in Europe begin to suggest they are not averse to increasing Russian gas supplies to the continent. Reuters cited several executives as making suggestions this week.

“If there is reasonable peace in Ukraine, we could return to flows of 60 billion cubic meters, maybe 70, per year, including LNG,” Engie executive vice president Didier Holleaux told the publication.

“ Europe will never go back to importing 150 billion cubic meters from Russia like before the war… but I would bet on maybe 70 billion cubic meters ,” said TotalEnergies CEO Patrick Pouyanne. He also said: 'We need to diversify, many routes, not over-rely on one or two,' suggesting that the EU's celebration of the arrival of US LNG to replace Russian gas via pipeline was indeed rather premature.

“Reopening the pipelines would reduce prices more than any current subsidy program,” the head of one of Germany's largest chemical centers told Reuters, referring to the Russian pipelines. 'It's a taboo subject,' added Christof Guenther, underlining that many fellow executives agree that a return to cheap Russian gas is urgently needed.

So Europe is in the grip of two opposing forces: the first which would like to completely close relations with Russia, no longer buying energy in any way, the second which instead would like to reopen relations, even if no longer in the uncontrolled way as before 2022. Which will be the force that will prevail? Trump and the ongoing negotiations in Saudi will probably decide this.

The article The EU wants to cut gas contracts with Russia. European entrepreneurs hope to import it comes from Scenari Economici .

This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/la-ue-vuole-tagliare-i-contratti-de-gas-con-la-russia-gli-imprenditori-europei-sperano-di-importarlo/ on Tue, 15 Apr 2025 18:05:43 +0000.