According to the financial information agency Bloomberg, the outline of the new European strategy, which should be approved by the European Commission later this month as part of the plan to reduce Moscow's energy dependence, aims to approve the still untapped potential of countries in the West. Africa, including Angola and Equatorial Guinea, both producers of liquefied natural gas.
The bloc of 27 European countries wants to move away from its biggest supplier, Russia, following the invasion of Ukraine, and prepare the region to import 10 million tonnes of hydrogen by 2030 to help replace Russian gas, in line with the ambitious project of discarding the use of fossil fuels and achieving climate neutrality by the middle of this century.
Bloomberg, which cites the draft version of the document, writes that the European Union intends to increase imports of liquefied natural gas by 50 billion cubic meters and also increase gas shipments through pipelines from countries other than Russia by 10,000. million cubic meters.
To this end, Brussels wants to fully implement the agreement with the United States for the delivery of 15 billion cubic meters of liquefied natural gas this year and around 50 billion annually by 2030, in addition to signing a trilateral agreement with Egypt. and Israel to increase flows to Europe this summer.
"The EU also needs to send consistent signals to the market to balance short- and medium-term needs with long-term objectives", reads the document, which admits that "all this needs a highly coordinated gas policy to exploit the market and political weight of the union and develop a tool for joint action".
Most analysts have stated that exporting countries or those with the capacity to increase gas production and exports, such as Angola, Equatorial Guinea or Mozambique, could benefit from Brussels' willingness to diversify gas purchases from Russia, mainly following the invasion of Ukraine.
Russia launched a military offensive in Ukraine on February 24 that has killed more than 3,000 civilians, according to the UN, which warns that the real number is likely to be much higher.
