France’s economy minister has warned that people will have to “be more careful regarding their consumption” following the price of natural gas in Europe jumped 60% on Monday and oil is close to its 2008 record, in the wake of the crisis in Ukraine.
The price of natural gas hit a new all-time high in the European market on Monday, as the United States and the European Union discussed energy sanctions once morest Russia following its February 24 invasion of Ukraine. .
Russia supplies 40% of Europe’s gas imports and fears of a disruption in this supply have driven the European market’s benchmark price, the Dutch TTF, to a new record high of 345 euros per megawatt hour (MWh).
The price of oil also increased due to a possible Western embargo on Russian oil.
The barrel of Brent from the North Sea approached 140 dollars (128 euros) on Sunday evening, close to its historic record of 147.50 dollars in July 2008.
2 euros per liter?
There are fears in France that the threshold of 2 euros the liter of gasoline is soon reached.
“It’s on everyone’s mind,” warns Michel-Édouard Leclerc, boss of the Leclerc hypermarket group, which has some 660 service stations. “It will happen this week in Paris,” he told Francinfo radio on Monday.
“There will be an increase of around 10 centimes per liter this week, in almost all service stations in France”.
boycott of oil and gas
Two weeks following the Russian incursion, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky urged his Western allies to take additional sanctions once morest Moscow, including boycotting its lucrative oil and gas sector.
“Russian oil smells of Ukrainian blood today,” Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said in a televised address on Sunday. “To buy it is to finance Russian war crimes”.
France applies its sanctions and seizes the superyacht of a Russian oil magnate.
Europe pays Russia some 700 million euros a day for its oil and gas supply.
US Foreign Minister Antony Blinken said earlier on Sunday that the United States and the European Union were “very actively” discussing the possibility of targeting Russian fossil fuels as the conflict escalates.
Europe divided
Europeans, however, are cautious regarding turning off the taps.
Germany, which holds the rotating presidency of the G7, imports from Russia around 55% of its gas and 42% of its oil and coal.
Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said an energy boycott would be pointless because it might not be sustained in the long term.
“It’s no use if in three weeks we find out that we only have a few days of electricity left in Germany and therefore have to reverse these sanctions,” she told a German public broadcaster. .
In another interview, she added that Germany was ready “to pay a very, very high economic price”, but “if tomorrow, in Germany or in Europe, the lights go out, that is not going to stop the tanks “.
