Restrictions in Europe on imports of Russian oil do not affect France’s purchase of natural gas from this nation.
Supporters of Ukraine want to curb such trade activities, believing that imports help finance the large-scale invasion of the country.
“Although French companies are the ones that import the most, according to an analysis, in the first half of this year the countries of the European Union imported 7 % more Russian LNG (refrigerated and liquefied natural gas to facilitate maritime transport) than in the same period of the previous year,” according to reports.
Regarding sanctions, Oleh Savytskyi, who is the founder of the non-profit organization Razom We Stand and an advocate for tougher sanctions against Russia’s fossil fuels, noted that the EU has set as its main goal “to progressively eliminate all Russian fossil fuels by 2027.”
In this sense, he warned that countries that maintain imports of Russian natural gas would be sabotaging the region’s energy transition “and contributing billions of euros to Russia’s war actions.”
However, the measure would be radical in relation to energy and heating bills, whose prices would increase exponentially, affecting not only the common citizen, but the industry.
Data from the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, IEEFA – a US organization that broke down data from Kpler, a shipping tracker, and ICIS, a raw materials data provider – show French companies imported almost 4.4 billion of cubic meters of Russian LNG in the first half of this year, compared to more than 2,000 million cubic meters in the same period of the previous year. France is followed by Spain and Belgium, with an increase of 1% and a decrease of 16%, respectively.
M.Pino
Source: euronews
(Reference image source: Unsplash+, in collaboration with Getty Images)
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