Some of Europe’s largest energy firms are acquiescing to Russia’s demands to make payments in RUB, as they are faced with the threat of a natural gas cutoff to the continent, the Financial Times reported.
Energy companies in Germany, Austria, Hungary and Slovakia are planning to open accounts at Gazprombank in Switzerland to meet the Russian requirement, according to people familiar with the matter.
The crisis is already dividing the bloc, as several nations are pushing the European Commission to tighten the language of its guidance to eliminate ambiguities allowing for these loopholes to remain, Bloomberg reports, citing people familiar with the matter.
GCC to the rescue, rich-oil countries in the Middle East are trying to fill Europe’s energy gap with more oil flows to the continent, with tanker data and fixture reports cited by Bloomberg indicating that fuel flows from the GCC to Europe are set to grow almost 130% this month to 379k barrels per day.
This would be the highest figure since October 2020, and would fill the gap of a166k barrel per day plunge in European imports from Russia.
Egypt could also have a role to play in plugging the gap. Egypt inked an agreement with Italian energy firm Eni earlier this month to boost Eni’s gas production in Egypt and increase liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports to Europe.
The agreement will boost Eni’s LNG exports to Italy and the rest of Europe to 3 bn cubic meters this year. EU Executive Vice-President Frans Timmermans also signaled last month that the bloc is looking to up its imports of LNG from Egypt in the short term as the EU works to diversify its energy supplies.
No comments:
Post a Comment