Belgium calls for EU ban on Russian LNG

Belgium is looking to ban Russian LNG imports into the European Union because the current sanctions regime cannot stop the surge in imports at EU import terminals, Belgian Energy Minister Tinne Van der Straeten told the Financial Times.

Belgium – along with the Netherlands, Spain and France – has been one of the top importers of Russian LNG in recent months, particularly after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the shutdown of many EU gas customers from Russian gas.

Now, Belgium believes that the EU’s recent attempts to reduce Russian LNG revenues are insufficient to allow European companies to abandon long-term LNG contracts with Russia, most of which were signed before 2022.

“We have Russian gas coming into Belgium. I’ve looked under every stone and gas (legislation) won’t help,” Van der Straeten told the FT, adding: “We need a European approach.”

The EU’s latest package of sanctions against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine includes a ban on transshipment services of Russian LNG on EU territory for transshipment operations to third countries, after a 9-month transition period. This covers both ship-to-ship and ship-to-shore transfers as well as reloading operations and does not affect import, only re-export to third countries via the EU, the bloc said.

To try to further restrict Russian LNG revenues, the EU has also agreed to ban new investment as well as the supply of goods, technology and services to complete LNG projects under construction, such as Arctic LNG 2 and Murmansk LNG.

Moreover, the package now bans the import of Russian LNG into certain import terminals that are not connected to the EU pipeline network.

However, these measures have not reduced EU imports of Russian LNG.

Sophie Hermans, the Netherlands’ climate policy and green growth minister, called this week for further sanctions to be imposed through “a common European approach” as Russian LNG imports into Rotterdam, Europe’s biggest port, surged in the quarter the third.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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