EU Commission president makes Russian gas claim — RT Russia & Former Soviet Union

The EU has measures in place that might guarantee a steady power provide within the occasion of an interruption in gasoline imports from Russia, the pinnacle of the European Fee declared on Tuesday.

Chatting with the press, President Ursula von der Leyen dismissed the declare that the EU could be unable to manage ought to Russia flip off the pipes. Moscow at the moment provides the bloc with roughly 40% of its pure gasoline.

“Our fashions now present that for partial disruption or additional lower of gasoline deliveries by Gazprom, we at the moment are slightly on the protected aspect,” she mentioned, in response to Reuters information company.

Patrick Pouyanna, CEO of the French oil and gasoline firm TotalEnergies, claimed earlier this month that the EU at the moment has “no various” to Russian gasoline and said that sustaining a dialogue with Russian suppliers could be important for the bloc’s survival this winter.

Regardless of its present dependence on Russia, von der Leyen revealed yesterday that the EU has engaged in dialogue with a number of different nations, together with the US, Qatar, Egypt, Azerbaijan, Nigeria, and South Korea, about the potential of a rise within the provide of pure gasoline, together with liquified (LNG) kind.

“We additionally spoke with the primary LNG suppliers… and requested whether or not we might swap contracts in favor of the EU,” she defined.

Particularly, she highlighted that the Japanese authorities had expressed a willingness to cooperate and final week mentioned it could divert some LNG shipments to Europe.

Based on von der Leyen, regardless of enhancements within the continent’s power infrastructure over current years permitting for simpler inter-country power distribution, a stoppage in Russia-EU gasoline circulate would nonetheless warrant alarm.

Japan’s promised contribution signifies that European efforts in reaching out to suppliers additional afield at the moment are “distinctly paying off,” she added.

Von der Leyen mentioned the necessity for Europe to scale back its dependence on Moscow had been highlighted by the alleged buildup of Russian troops on the Ukrainian border, with fears that an invasion might result in the pipes being turned off. The transition away from Russian gasoline would additionally coincide with a wider EU goal to shift to 32% renewable power by 2030, she famous.

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