Qatar’s national oil and gas company Qatar Energy will stop supplying liquefied natural gas (LNG) to the European Union if the community imposes fines on large companies for failure to comply with criteria on carbon dioxide emissions and human rights in the amount of 5% of annual revenues.
As Day.Az reports, Saad bin Sharida al-Kaabi, State Minister for Energy of Qatar and CEO of Qatar Energy, told the British edition of the Financial Times (FT).
“If it comes to the point where I’m going to lose 5% of my revenue by going to Europe, I won’t go to Europe <...>. I’m not bluffing,” he said. “5% of QatarEnergy’s revenue means 5% of the revenue of the state of Qatar. This is people’s money <...>“So I can’t lose that much money and no one will accept the loss of that kind of money,” the head of Qatar Energy added. He stressed that if any EU state introduces fines for non-compliance with the criteria contained in the Corporate Sustainability and Due Diligence Directive (Directive on corporate sustainability due diligence, CSDD), Qatar will stop gas supplies to the EU.
According to the FT, according to the directive adopted in May 2024, EU countries must introduce fines for non-compliance with criteria related to carbon dioxide emissions, human rights and labor rights in the amount of at least 5% of companies’ annual revenues. These measures will come into force from 2027 and are part of the EU’s policy to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.