No Gas Ban on EU Radar

Estonia is eager to work on a seventh sanctions package against Russia according to its Prime Minister Kaja Kallas:

• “I think that gas has to be in the seventh package but I am realistic as well,” Kallas told reporters in Brussels today, adding “I don’t think it will be there.”
• Regarding the oil ban agreed by the EU late last night, Kallas said “It’s a fair compromise, this was the best we could get. Yesterday I was very sceptical that we would reach an agreement so that’s a positive thing that we did.”
• The EU has been unable to get a full oil ban over the line making gas a far harder prospect given Europe’s lack of import ability and increased cost of seaborne versus piped gas.
• Regarding a gas ban, Austria’s Chancellor Karl Nehammer said this morning, “The gas embargo will not be a topic, Olaf Scholz has made this clear as well,” adding “Russian oil is much easier to compensate, gas is completely different, which is why a gas embargo will not be an issue in the next sanctions package,”