TASS. EU energy ministers agreed to exclude Russian gas from joint purchasing during an informal meeting on Thursday, the European Commission said in a statement.
“The new rules will make it possible for member states and energy companies to purchase gas jointly on global markets,” the document says. “Member states made it explicit that Russian gas will be excluded from joint purchasing.”
However, the term ‘Russian gas’ has not been clearly defined, and it is yet unknown whether gas produced in Russia and purchased with the help of an intermediary or a chain of intermediaries will be considered as such.
“In practice, member states agreed that gas companies and companies consuming gas in EU and the Energy Community countries will submit their gas import needs. The EU will hire a service provider to calculate the aggregated demand and seek for offers on the global markets to meet the total demand,” the statement says. “Member States will require domestic undertakings to use the service provider to aggregate demand for volumes of gas equivalent to 15% of their respective gas storage filling obligations for 2023 (around 13.5 billion cubic metres for the EU as a whole).”