Financial Post: Winter gas cutoff would leave EU with few options

The European Union has limited options to overcome a potential cutoff of Russian natural gas supplies in the coming winter and might have to add more storage or form a common reserve, a draft EU document showed.

The bloc should also seek to develop reverse pipeline flows and keep studying liquefied natural gas as a potential remedy in case Russian flows are disrupted, the European Commission said in a draft of a communication to be submitted to EU governments and the European Parliament. EU leaders in March asked the commission, the bloc’s executive arm, to prepare a plan for reducing Europe’s reliance on Russia for energy amid the escalating crisis in Ukraine.

Supplies from Russia accounted for 42% of EU natural gas imports and 27% of the bloc’s consumption of the fuel last year, according to the draft document. Pipelines crossing Ukraine carry Russian gas that meets about 15 percent of EU demand. Russia intervened in Ukraine after Moscow-backed President Viktor Yanukovych was ousted in February following months of street demonstrations.
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