OREANDA-NEWS The European Union plans to gradually abandon the purchase of Russian energy carriers. The terms of complete rejection are not specified in the draft EU declaration, since the countries of the union depend on energy supplies in different ways. The reason for the rejection of oil, gas and coal from the Russian Federation was the military operation in Ukraine. Russia is the largest supplier of energy resources for the Union. It provides 40% of gas, more than 25% of oil and almost 50% of coal.

A declaration on the gradual abandonment of gas, oil and coal from Russia in connection with the events in Ukraine will be read out at the EU summit.

"Faced with growing instability, strategic competition and security threats, we have decided to take more responsibility for our security and take further decisive steps to strengthen our European sovereignty, reduce our dependence and develop a new model of growth and investment for 2030," the draft declaration quoted Reuters as saying.

According to the authors of the document, the events in Ukraine have become a turning point for European history, as Russia provides the EU with 40% of gas supplies, more than 25% of oil and almost 50% of coal.

Since the members of the union depend to varying degrees on Russian energy resources, the EU leaders decided not to set a deadline for refusing Russian supplies. Germany, Italy, Hungary and Austria depend on them the most.

According to the European REPowerEU plan, the European Commission was ready to reduce gas consumption by two-thirds in 2022 and completely abandon Russian gas by 2030. To this end, the EU plans to diversify supplies by increasing the volume of imports of liquefied natural gas, pipelines from other suppliers and increasing the volume of production and imports of renewable hydrogen and biomethane.

On March 9, US President Joe Biden announced sanctions against the Russian energy sector. The import of oil, gas and other energy carriers is prohibited in the United States. The UAE and Saudi Arabia, which supply a significant part of oil to the world market, did not support this decision.

The British oil and gas company British Petroleum (since 2001 — BP) will stop concluding new deals for the purchase of oil and gas from Russia. Also, on February 27, the company began to get rid of its 20 percent stake in Rosneft.

Earlier, Shell refused Russian oil and gas. On March 8, Shell announced that it would no longer buy Russian oil and gas. The company promised to change the supply chain of crude oil in order not to depend on Russian resources. She also decided to close all her gas stations in the country.

Andy Lipow, president of the Texas consulting company Lipow Oil Associates, admitted that a ban on the import of oil, gas, etc. from Russia could cause a big jump in energy prices and turn into a recession. If Russia refuses to supply oil to European countries in response to sanctions, then raw materials will rise in price by another $ 20-30 per barrel.