Belgium is seeking a ban on Russian LNG imports into the European Union as the current sanctions regime cannot halt rising imports at EU import terminals, Belgian Energy Minister, Tinne Van der Straeten, has told the Financial Times.
Belgium – alongside the Netherlands, Spain, and France – has been one of the top importers of Russian LNG in recent months, especially after the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the cutoff of many EU gas customers from Russian pipeline gas.
Now Belgium sees the recent EU attempts to reduce Russian LNG revenues as insufficient to allow European companies to exit long-term LNG contracts with Russia, most of which were signed before 2022.
“We have Russian gas coming into Belgium. I have looked under every stone and the gas [legislation] is not going to help,” Van der Straeten told FT, adding “We need a European approach.”
The EU’s latest package of sanctions against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine includes banning reloading services of Russian LNG in EU territory for the purpose of transshipment operations to third countries, after a transition period of 9 months. This covers both ship-to-ship transfers and ship-to-shore transfers, as well as re-loading operations, and does not affect import but only re-export to third countries via the EU, the bloc said.
To further try to restrict Russian LNG revenues, the EU also agreed to prohibit new investments, as well as the provision of goods, technology, and services for the completion of LNG projects under construction, such as Arctic LNG 2 and Murmansk LNG.
Moreover, the package now bans the import of Russian LNG into specific import terminals that are not connected to the EU gas pipeline network.
Yet, these measures haven’t curbed EU imports of Russia’s LNG.
Sophie Hermans, the Minister of Climate Policy and Green Growth of the Netherlands, this week also called for additional sanctions via “a common European approach” as Russian LNG imports into Rotterdam, Europe’s largest port, have increased in the third quarter.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
