Borrel: Pipeline gas purchase from Azerbaijan up

Europe will have to go through a difficult winter with a slowdown in economic growth, and the EU's ability to purchase gas from non-Russian sources is approaching the limit.

"Europe is facing a real storm: energy prices are rising, economic growth is slowing, winter is approaching," Interfax-Azerbaijan quotes Borrel as saying on his blog on August 1.

According to Borrel, the EU has to some extent managed to cope with the overall reduction in the share of Russian gas imports from 40 per cent at the beginning of the year to about 20 per cent today. This was achieved mainly due to an increase in LNG purchases, the share of use of which doubled from 19 per cent to 37 per cent.

Purchases of pipeline gas from Azerbaijan, Norway and Algeria have also increased.

"But the harsh truth is that this winter we are approaching the limit of how much additional gas we can buy from non-Russian sources. Thus, the main part will have to come from energy savings, i.e. demand reduction," he stressed.

The head of the EU Foreign Policy Department regrets that after 2014 Europe did not create a "real EU energy union" built on the diversification of supplies and reducing the share of Russia in them, by investing in energy efficiency and renewable sources.

"The stakes are even higher this time: we cannot afford to repeat the same mistake," he said.