EU pools companies' requests to buy more non Russian gas

In the coming weeks the European Union will begin pooling the demand for gas from European companies, said its energy commissioner, as it attempts to accelerate its efforts to phase-out Russian energy.

The EU is currently negotiating proposals that would ban all Russian gas and oil imports by the end of January 2028. Last week, sanctions were adopted to ban Russian gas liquefied earlier, in January 2027.

This will force countries that still receive Russian gas to terminate their contracts and find alternative suppliers. France, Belgium and other EU countries still import Russian LNG while others such as Slovakia and Hungary receive Russian gas via pipeline.

EU Energy Commissioner Dan Jorgensen announced that Brussels will relaunch their gas demand pooling in the next few weeks "to get competitively-priced and diversified supplies".

"We will launch a dedicated demand aggregation for companies in this area," Jorgensen wrote in a blog post on X during a visit to Romania and Bulgaria.

Gas buyers from central, eastern and southern Europe will be targeted by the new pool. Hungary and Slovakia warned that replacing Russian gas with other sources of energy could increase prices and oppose the EU's plan to exit Russian gas.

The EU wants to increase its LNG imports to the United States, after pledging to buy $250 billion of U.S. Energy per year as part of a trade agreement with President Donald Trump.

In response to the Ukraine conflict, the EU began pooling demand for gas among companies in 2022.

It is unclear how much gas has been bought through the platform. The EU platform pools gas demand, and matches buyers to gas suppliers. The matched companies negotiate gas contracts. However, the EU does not get involved in these commercial discussions.

(source: Reuters)