🇪🇺 EU pays $113bn extra for energy without ‘one extra molecule’ of gas or oil as a result of the Iran and Russo-Ukrainian Wars

European officials say the situation exposes how untenable Europe’s reliance on imported fuel has become

The EU has spent more than $113 billion in additional energy payments this year without receiving any additional gas or oil in exchange, European Energy Commissioner Dan Jorgensen said in Dublin on 29 September.

“We have now surpassed €100 billion that we’ve paid extra for our energy this year without receiving one extra molecule of gas or oil,” he said.

Jorgensen spoke ahead of an informal meeting of EU energy ministers in the Irish capital, as the bloc weighs the cost of a bill that has piled up since the start of the US-Israeli war on Iran in late February.

The warning came after US President Donald Trump threatened to ban US diesel exports, a move that sent petroleum product prices sharply higher and alarmed the EU – which imports roughly half of its diesel directly from Washington.

Asked whether Washington had offered the bloc any guarantees, Jorgensen said he had sent US Energy Secretary Chris Wright a clear message on the ban, which he said was “not in the interests of anybody, not the US, not us.”

He added that he was encouraged by Wright publicly distancing himself from the measure. While the EU faces no supply crisis, Jorgensen said, the approaching winter season looks challenging enough that the bloc wants “to eliminate any uncertainties that can be eliminated.”

At the beginning of September, European benchmark gas futures surged to their highest level since January 2023 after Washington launched fresh waves of strikes on Iran.

Dutch front-month futures jumped 5.9 percent to €73.95 ($83.82) per megawatt-hour, as traders braced for a prolonged halt to liquefied natural gas (LNG) shipping through the Strait of Hormuz just weeks before the cold season.

🔗 https://thecradle.co/articles-id/40234