EU Will Pool Demand in Effort to Buy More Non-Russian Gas

The move comes as the European Union attempts to wean the 27-nation bloc off the Russian energy that has fueled its economy for decades.

The Gazprom logo in Saint Petersburg, Russia, on June 5, 2024. Anton Vaganov/Reuters

The European Union will begin pooling European companies’ demand for gas in the coming weeks as part of its efforts to wean the continent off Russian energy, the bloc’s energy commissioner, Dan Jorgensen, said on Oct. 28.

The EU is in the process of negotiating a ban on oil and gas imports from Moscow by January 2028.

Before the Ukraine–Russia war began in 2022, Moscow provided about 40 percent of the EU’s natural gas imports, along with significant volumes of crude oil and coal.

Jorgensen said the EU would soon relaunch its gas demand pooling system “to help get competitively priced and diversified supplies.”

“We will launch a dedicated gas demand aggregation exercise for companies in this region,” Jorgensen said on X, following the Central and South Eastern Europe Energy Connectivity (CESEC) Ministerial meeting in Romania.

The new pool will target gas buyers in central, eastern, and southeastern Europe.

The EU first began pooling companies’ demand for gas in 2022 to attempt to replace Russian fuel with alternative supplies in response to the Ukraine war.

However, no official figures on actual signed contracts or procured volumes are publicly available as the platform pools demand and then matches buyers with gas suppliers, who then negotiate gas contracts—independently of the EU—and companies have not yet been obliged to disclose any deals.

The EU is seeking to rapidly increase its energy imports from the United States—having pledged to buy $250 billion per year through 2028 under a trade deal with U.S. President Donald Trump.

Trump has also expressed dissatisfaction with America’s European allies still purchasing Russian energy amid the ongoing war in Ukraine.

In his address to the U.N. General Assembly in New York City on Sept. 23, Trump criticized NATO members for continuing to buy Russian energy.

“But inexcusably, even NATO countries have not cut off much Russian energy and Russian energy products,” he said. “Think of it, they’re funding the war against themselves.”

A month later, on Oct. 23, the EU agreed on fresh sanctions against Russia that target the country’s shadow fleet, banks, third-country entities, and cryptocurrency providers.

The bloc’s 19th package of sanctions against Moscow was a response to Russia’s escalating aggression in Ukraine, particularly its attacks on civilian infrastructure, the Council of the EU said in a statement.

Measures include sanctioning an additional 117 vessels from Russia’s shadow fleet, bringing the total to 557. These non-EU tankers are suspected of transporting Russian oil despite sanctions being in place.

It also confirmed the ban on imports of liquified natural gas (LNG) starting in January 2027 for long-term contracts and within six months for short-term contracts.

That move will force member states still purchasing gas from Russia to break those contracts and find alternatives.

Countries including France and Belgium still import Russian LNG, while Slovakia and Hungary receive gas deliveries via pipeline.

Hungary has been the most vocal member state in opposition to plans to cut off Russian energy, with Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto saying on Oct. 15 that EU countries were acting like “madmen” on the issue.

“My European friends are acting like madmen when it comes to energy,” he said, according to Russian state news agency TASS. “Now Brussels is forcing us to replace cheap and reliable sources of gas supplies with more expensive and less reliable ones. Hungary sees no point in this.”

Slovakia, the other EU and NATO state still heavily reliant on Russian energy, has also resisted the ban.

“We don’t have any other options which could be sustainable and also for the price to be reasonable,” Slovak Foreign Minister Juraj Blanar told Reuters during an interview on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly on Sept. 24.

“It takes time to diversify this. So that’s why we are calling for some kind of empathy.”

Reuters and Victoria Friedman contributed to this report.