Pressure is mounting on the European Union to abandon
Russian gas supplies as individual countries begin turning off the tap. The
Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia became Europe’s first region to
abandon Russian gas supplies entirely past weekend, and they urged other
nations on the continent to do the same.
Lithuania, the first EU nation to make the move, declared on
Saturday that the country was acting “in response to Russia’s energy blackmail
in Europe,” according to a news release from the country’s Energy Ministry.
But whether this leads to other countries in Europe
abandoning Russia’s gas is a big question.
German Finance Minister Christian Lindner on Sunday said
Russia’s crimes could not go unanswered, but on Monday argued a full-scale
embargo would hurt Germany more than Russia.
“We must plan tough sanctions, but gas cannot be substituted
in the short term,” Lindner told reporters before meeting with the
Eurogroup, the informal body of EU finance ministers.
“We would inflict more damage on ourselves than on them,”
Lindner said.
Germany is in a particularly difficult position, as it
imported about 55% of its gas from Russia last year. The EU as a whole gets
about 40% of its gas from Russia.
The Baltic states comparatively import much less gas from
Russia. Lithuania received about 26% of its gas from Russia directly last
year, according to Bloomberg. The country will now rely on liquefied natural
gas (LNG) imports from the United States and Norway, Bloomberg reported, citing
the country’s Energy Minister.
Morgan Bazilian, a public policy professor at the Colorado
School of Mines, told The Hill that Lithuania eight years ago developed a
floating storage and regasification unit at the country’s Klaipėda LNG
terminal, which enables the country to take in gas from other countries.
“They were able to make the statements because of planning they
had done eight years ago,” he said. “And Latvia and Estonia are sort of coming
along with them.”
“While Lithuania might not be an example of how nations can
get rid of Russian gas overnight, the country is a very good example of
planning for your energy security and not just leaving it to market forces”,
Brenda Shaffer, an international energy specialist at the Naval Postgraduate
School, told The Hill.
Lithuania’s gas transmission system has been running without
Russian gas imports since April 1, with zero flow of Russian gas coming through
the Lithuanian-Belarusian interconnection, according to the country’s Ministry
of Energy.
“From this month on — no more Russian gas in Lithuania,”
Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda tweeted on Saturday.
Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė followed up on
Sunday by tweeting, “from now and so on Lithuania won’t be consuming a cubic
centimeter of toxic Russian gas.”
Meanwhile, Uldis Bariss, CEO of Latvia’s Conexus Baltic
Grid, told Latvian radio this weekend, “Since April 01, 2022 Russian
natural gas is no longer flowing to Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania.”
The Baltic states are much smaller economies than other nations
in Europe that import Russian gas, and as a result the moves, while important,
will have a smaller affect on Russia than if larger nations turned off the
spigot.
Bazilian noted that while the shift gives the right optics,
it is a relatively small piece of the European puzzle.
“It’s very small in comparison to, say, Germany or Italy or
other countries that rely on natural gas,” Bazilian said.
In the short to medium term, a larger European embargo on
Russian energy is unlikely given the dependence of nations such as Germany on
Russian gas, Shaffer said.
Germany and other big EU members also have much larger
industrialized manufacturing sectors dependent upon Russian gas.
This has given Russia leverage over Germany, which before
Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine was backing a controversial new pipeline from
Russia.
“For a country like Germany, which is heavily manufacturing
based — like steel and cars and other equipment — the question of the price of
the gas has very different economic impact than for a country like Lithuania,
which is mostly light industry,” Shaffer said.
Shaffer also noted the tension between European climate
goals and the present need to bolster traditional energy needs through more
pipeline projects and LNG infrastructure.
“There is a conflict in a sense between European climate
goals and building new infrastructure that would ensure their energy security,”
Shaffer said. “In a strange way, almost, the climate camp would prefer the
status quo.”
While the decision of the Baltic states to stop importing
Russian gas will not likely carry over to the entire EU, Bazilian described the
weekend’s events as a symbol that the rest of Europe is really serious about
this and that the continent “is going to look to diversify from Russia.
One way to do that will be through US LNG supplies.
President Biden recently announced the US would be supplying an additional 15
billion cubic meters of gas to Europe this year.
The EU has also said it is going to release a pathway on how
to wean off Russian energy imports by 2027, and Bazilian expressed confidence
that the US will be part of that solution.
Despite its small size, the Baltic region is yet another market
that will be importing LNG, according to Shaffer. And while that won’t be
solely from American sources, more market demand for LNG in general also means
more demand for American LNG, she explained.
Lithuania’s capital, Vilnius, also houses the NATO Energy
Security Center of Excellence, which reflects how the country views energy “as
a really important issue of national security,” Shaffer added.
“They’re sort of like the main voice within NATO on
these issues, so I think it will have some impact on NATO thinking,” she
said.