The EU announced the creation of a "cartel of buyers" of gas

The new platform will be able to bring together European companies and governments for joint purchases of gas in the global market. "Cartel of buyers" can start operating in June,

The European Union will set up a platform next month where businesses and governments can form a "buyers' cartel" to buy gas from global suppliers, excluding RUSSIA. Maros Sefcovic, Vice President of the European Commission, spoke about this in an interview with BLOOMBERG.

Bloomberg calls the initiative elusive for a long time, but the emergence of a "cartel of buyers" was made possible by the withdrawal of Russian energy resources and a trade confrontation with CHINA.

According to Šefčović, the EU will be able to carry out the first transactions within the “cartel” as early as June 2023, during the period of active filling of gas storage facilities.

A cartel is a form of monopolistic association or agreement in which each enterprise that is part of it retains financial and production independence. In the energy market, a cartel is usually referred to as the OPEC+ association, created by oil-exporting countries in order to control oil production quotas .

After the start of the Russian special operation in Ukraine, the EU and the G7 countries ( usa , CANADA, UK, France, Germany, Italy and Japan) set a price ceiling for Russian oil, and the EU also introduced a price limit for Russian gas in the amount of €180 per megawatt hour ( about $2,000 per 1,000 cubic meters).

Russia, in response, converted payment for gas into rubles and banned the supply of oil and oil products to foreign citizens and companies if the contracts "directly or indirectly provide for the use of a price cap mechanism." Thus, the share of Russian gas in the European market has decreased from 45% in 2021 to about 7.5% in 2022.

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In addition to the sanctions, one of the reasons for the reduction in gas supplies from Russia was the explosions on the Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines. Gas continues to flow to Europe through the Yamal-Europe pipeline, a gas pipeline running through Ukraine and the Turkish Stream, laid along the bottom of the Black Sea.

On March 6, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, at a joint press conference with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, said that the European Union had completely overcome dependence on Russian oil and gas. At the same time, Russian Energy Minister Nikolai Shulginov said back in September that Europe would not be able to abandon Russian gas, most likely even by 2027, as this would lead to a halt in European industry.