The Gulf nation could halt fuel exports to the bloc if slapped with carbon-emission fines by Brussels
Qatar will cease fuel shipments to the EU if member states implement new laws on carbon emissions, the Gulf nation’s vitality minister Saad al-Kaabi has informed the Monetary Instances (FT). Qatar has turn into an necessary provider to the bloc after Brussels resolved to wean itself off Russian fuel following the escalation of the Ukraine battle in 2022.
If any EU nation imposes penalties on Qatar below the bloc’s Company Sustainability Due Diligence Directive, Doha would cease exporting its liquefied pure fuel (LNG) to the bloc, al-Kaabi informed the outlet on Sunday.
QatarEnergy, the state-owned vitality firm, has long-term LNG contracts with a number of EU international locations, together with Germany, France, Italy, and the Netherlands.
The EU’s company due diligence guidelines, adopted in Could 2023, are a part of the bloc’s technique to attain net-zero emissions by 2050. The laws states that non-compliance is punishable with fines of as much as 5% of the corporate’s annual international income. Al-Kaabi argued that such fines would considerably affect QatarEnergy’s income, which straight helps the state of Qatar and its residents.
”If the case is that I lose 5% of my generated income by going to Europe, I can’t go to Europe… I’m not bluffing,” Kaabi stated. “I can not lose that form of cash – and no one would settle for dropping that form of cash,” he identified.
It might be inconceivable for an vitality producer like QatarEnergy to align with the EU’s net-zero goal as stipulated by the directive due to the quantity of hydrocarbons it produces, the minister defined.
If slapped with hefty penalties, QatarEnergy wouldn’t break its LNG contracts however would try to discover authorized avenues.
”I can’t settle for that we get penalized,” he stated. “I’ll cease sending fuel to Europe.”
Following the escalation of the Ukraine battle in February 2022, the EU began changing Russian pipeline fuel with costlier LNG from the Center East and the US. The bloc nonetheless will get pipeline fuel from Russia by way of Ukraine’s transit community however the settlement between Moscow and Kiev is ready to run out on December 31. The authorities in Kiev have repeatedly careworn that the deal won’t be renewed.
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