The European Union and the United States agreed on measures to reduce dependence on Russian gas

The United States and the European Union (EU) announced on Friday measures to reduce the European bloc's dependence on Russian gas, while Germany said it wants to quickly dispense with coal and oil purchased from Russia, following the invasion of Ukraine.

According to an announcement made this Friday, the United States “will work with international partners and strive to ensure a volume of liquefied natural gas [LNG] for the EU market of at least 15 billion cubic meters by 2022″.

In addition to this contribution to the European energy market, a working group between Washington and Brussels will focus on the diversification of gas supply to the EU, which is heavily dependent on purchases from Russia, especially in the case of Germany.

The sharp rise in electricity prices caused red flags in the EU already at the end of 2021, although this situation worsened dramatically following the Russian invasion of Ukraine a month ago.

It is estimated that the EU buys some 150 billion cubic meters of gas from Russia annually, just over 40% of European imports of that fuel, in a high degree of dependence that the bloc now seeks to break.

Meanwhile, in the first half of 2021, US gas accounted for about 6% of European imports.

The group announced this Friday will have among its objectives “ensuring energy security for Ukraine and the EU” for the coming winter boreal.

US President Joe Biden said Friday in Brussels that Russian President Vladimir Putin had “used his country's energy resources (...) to manipulate his neighbors.”

For this reason, he said, the United States blocked all imports of hydrocarbons from Russia, relying on its status as an energy-exporting country, but he assured that other countries did not have the conditions to do the same.

“The United States and the European Union are going to work together and take concrete steps to reduce dependence on natural gas” and maximize the use of renewable energy, he added.

Meanwhile, a senior US official told the press that it was clear that Putin uses “energy as a weapon to force and destabilize Europe. And the group we announced on the day will hit their ability to do so.”

Germany announces concrete steps

This Friday Germany announced steps to get rid of its dependence on coal and oil coming from Russia by the end of this year, although it expects to break that need for gas only by mid-2024.

“The first important steps have been taken to free us from the influence of Russian imports,” Economy Minister Robert Habeck said at a press conference.

Habeck pointed out that Russian oil imports will be halved by the middle of the year, with almost total independence projected by the end of the year.

He also added that “by autumn” the country will be “independent of Russian coal”.

Since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, pressure has multiplied for the EU to adopt sanctions that hit Russian oil exports, but this idea faces resistance in the absence of an immediate substitute.

Europe's dependence on Russian gas is so deep that EU sanctions on Russian banks do not include banks where bloc countries make payments for their fuel imports.

The situation worsened further on Wednesday after Putin announced that his country will require “hostile countries” (in a reference to the EU) to pay in rubles for their gas purchases.

Germany reacted angrily and immediately, claiming that this would represent a bankruptcy of contracts. “We are going to discuss with our European partners to decide how to respond to that demand,” Habeck said.

( Por Aldo Gamboa - AFP)

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