EU finally ready to bring down Russia’s gas empire … sort of

Depending on how the Commission defines “transshipments,” the importers likely to be most affected will be Spain’s Naturgy, France’s Elengy and Belgium’s Fluxys, said Katinas, all of which have long-term contracts linked to Russia’s Yamal LNG.

But it’s unclear whether EU sanctions would allow the firms to safely end their contracts unilaterally without facing penalties or legal action from their Russian partners, he added.

A spokesperson for Fluxys said it would “fully comply” with sanctions if imposed, but noted the firm had “no control” over the origin of LNG kept in its storage sites and that it was “obliged to respect the contractual agreements” with its customers.

Elengy and Naturgy didn’t respond to requests for comment. Novatek, Gazprom and RusGazDobycha, the owners and operators of the Russian LNG projects being considered for EU sanctions, also didn’t respond to questions sent by POLITICO.

Liquid luck

The Commission has resisted sanctioning LNG so far despite repeated requests from the Baltic countries and Poland. The new proposal, however, seems to be gathering political support quickly.

“As part of a new package of sanctions against Russia, the federal government is calling for a gradual end to transshipment of Russian LNG in European ports,” Belgian Energy Minister Tinne van der Straeten said on Tuesday. “We must … stop adding to Putin’s war chest.”