The European Union will give energy exporters an extra year to prepare for the EU’s methane regulation as the bloc looks to avoid adding costs to energy supply in the second crisis in four years, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told the European Parliament on Tuesday.
“We will give flexibility to exporters for one more year on methane. This saves additional costs at a moment of crisis,” von der Leyen said in a speech to European lawmakers on how the EU plans to curb soaring energy costs that could surge even more come winter.
“Tackling high energy costs is our priority,” the top EU official said.
“We are working on short-term measures at home – each tailored to specific national situations. And we are working on securing supplies while bringing prices down.”
Amid the fuel crisis and record-high gasoline and diesel prices in many European countries, the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, is now launching “a strategic dialogue on European refineries,” von der Leyen said.
“We are all feeling these higher costs. Businesses are under high pressure. People struggle to pay their bills. And this could intensify as we head into winter. So, we need to act now,” the EC president added.
The postponement of the methane regulation was almost a given, considering hints and remarks by EU officials in recent weeks that it would be wise to delay the implementation of the regulation, which was scheduled to take effect in January 2027.
“I have instructed my services to look into the possibilities of postponing the import part of the legislation with one year,” European Energy Commissioner Dan Jorgensen told Bloomberg earlier this month. “And this would give the market actors time to make sure that they can indeed implement these new rules without it hurting our security of supply and prices.”
Two of the largest oil and gas suppliers to the EU, the United States and Qatar, have argued repeatedly that the methane regulation would hurt both the security of supply and prices.
By Michael Kern for Oilprice.com
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