The European Commission wants to oblige the EU member states to strengthen control over strategic gas reserves. This is stated in a package of legislative proposals to strengthen energy security and decarbonization of the EU gas market, presented by the European Commission on Wednesday, December 15.
These proposals, in particular, are designed to create conditions for the transition from the use of natural gas to renewable energy sources (RES) and low-carbon gases, such as biomethane and hydrogen. To enter into force, the proposals still need to be approved by the EU Council and the European Parliament. How they can affect the activities of “Gazprom” – at DW.
Strategic gas reserves in the European Union
In response to the rise in energy prices this year, the European Commission has made proposals to improve the EU’s energy security. “Our proposals enhance the security of gas supplies and solidarity among EU member states to counter price shocks and make our energy system more resilient,” said European Energy Commissioner Kadri Simson.
The largest Western European UGS facility in Rehden, Germany, is effectively controlled by Gazprom
The legislative proposals contain an obligation for the EU states to pay special attention to the issue of gas storage in their assessment of the risks of providing “blue fuel”. These include “risks associated with the control of storage facilities by legal entities from third countries,” the project notes.
“In the event of unaddressed risks, the EU member states should consider measures to create gas reserves through regional cooperation,” the document also says. Recall that Gazprom owns gas storage facilities in Europe, in particular in Germany. In the fall of this year, they were only marginally filled, although usually, by the beginning of the heating season, storage facilities in Europe were almost completely filled.
The proposed draft indicates that EU states can cooperate with countries of the Energy Community with significant gas storage facilities: “This may include the possibility of considering the use of these storage facilities located outside the EU in general risk assessments.” Obviously, in this case we are talking, first of all, about Ukraine, which owns the largest underground gas storage facilities in Europe and is a member of the Energy Community.
EC wants to ban long-term gas supply contracts
Among the measures aimed at reducing the use of natural gas, the European Commission proposed to ban long-term contracts for the supply of raw fossil gas – but only after 2049. Untreated is understood to be natural gas produced and supplied without the use of carbon capture and storage technologies.
According to the proposal, the contract can begin at any time, but it must end no later than 2049. After that, only contracts with a validity period of less than a year will be possible, and only in those cases where this is necessary to ensure the security of supplies. As you know, Gazprom prefers to supply gas to Europe under long-term contracts.
The EU wants to monitor methane emissions in other countries
Another proposal of the European Commission concerns measures to reduce methane emissions into the atmosphere. In particular, Brussels wants to oblige European companies to monitor methane leaks and eliminate them. Another measure is to limit the flaring of associated gas.
The proposals also concern the import of gas, oil and coal to the EU. At the first stage, importers intend to oblige to collect information on emissions and methane leakages from their suppliers, as well as provide it to the European Commission. These data are planned to be published on a special platform. But in the second stage, approximately in 2025, the European Commission will propose to introduce already legislative norms to reduce methane emissions associated with energy imports into the EU.
How does Brussels intend to obtain information from those suppliers who do not wish to provide it? DW’s source in the European Commission explains that the EU will use diplomacy as well as autonomous instruments – we are talking about satellite systems for monitoring methane emissions. Now they will make it possible to record large-scale emissions, but in the coming years, new satellites will make it possible to do this with respect to smaller leaks, the source said.
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