US urges EU to ditch Russian oil and gas faster
Photo: Chris Wright (Getty Images)
EU countries should move faster to abandon Russian energy sources, as this would help speed up the end of the war in Ukraine, according to US Energy Secretary Chris Wright.
"The European Union could phase out Russian oil and gas faster and it would be helpful in ending the war in Ukraine," the US Energy Secretary says.
Speaking at an event in Brussels organized by the Center for European Policy Studies think tank, Wright also said that if the EU does not amend its methane laws, he will ban LNG imports from the United States.
EU gradually abandoning gas and oil from Russia
Earlier, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said that the EU intends to accelerate the complete abandonment of oil and gas from Russia.
The EU has already banned imports of crude oil from Russia delivered by sea and imposed a price cap on Russian oil at $46.2 per barrel.
The bloc is currently negotiating a complete ban on Russian oil and gas imports by January 1, 2028, starting with new purchases and short-term contracts next year.
Hungary and Slovakia, which import about 200-250 thousand barrels of Russian oil per day, equivalent to about 3% of EU oil demand, are opposed to accelerating the process.
The EU's purchases of Russian gas remain significantly higher. According to EU data, Europe will purchase about 13% of its gas from Russia this year, down from about 45% before Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
