Belgium is in favor of an embargo on Russian gas

Minister of Energy Tinne Van der Straeten (Green) was instructed by the Belgian government to draw up a dossier on the gradual cessation of the transshipment of Russian liquefied gas (LNG) in European ports, his office indicates. A decision that was taken in parallel to supply F-16s to Ukraine. “The government is committed to supporting Ukraine and Ukrainians in their fight against the Russian invasion. But this only makes sense if we stop increasing Putin’s war chest. That is why the federal government, as part of a new package of sanctions against Russia, is calling for a gradual cessation of the transhipment of Russian LNG in European ports,” the Van der Straeten cabinet explains.

The LNG terminal of Zeebrugge is one of the gas trading hubs in Europe. And in 2023 the approximately half of the LNG unloaded there came from Russia. This is the result of a contract that Fluxys Belgium, the gas network operator in Belgium, concluded in 2015 with the private company Yamal LNG, which operates a huge gas field north of the Arctic Circle in Siberia, a gas that is liquefied and transported by LNG tankers.

Over there Sweden advocates the inclusion of Russian LNG in the fourteenth package of sanctions against Russia. THE German Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck confirmed his country’s support for a total ban on the import of Russian LNG across Europe.

Fluxys Belgium has repeatedly explained that this must happen if there are no sanctions against Russian gas respect your contractsbut that if sanctions were to come into force, it would do everything possible to respect them.

Minister Van der Straeten will also argue for this only existing contracts concerning uranium of Russian origin will be executedand that no new contracts be concluded with Russia in this area unless it endangers our energy supply, his office added.

Given the importance of Europe’s dependence on Russian uranium, such an embargo seems reasonable unlikely short-term.