The EU might cut off Russian gas supplies a year earlier than expected.

The European Parliament is exploring proposals to accelerate the EU’s phase-out of Russian gas by one year, aiming for January 2027. EU countries and their lawmakers are preparing to negotiate an EU plan to ban Russian gas imports, building on a legal proposal that the European Commission submitted last month to completely cease Russian gas imports by January 1 2028.

Meanwhile, EU natural gas futures prices fell below €32/MWh for the first time in three months on June 25. Prices dipped to €31.92/MWh, down 1.3% from the previous day. However, Qatar is threatening to divert LNG supplies from the EU to other markets in response to a bloc directive requiring major companies operating within the EU to identify and address human rights and environmental issues in their supply chains.

Qatar is the world’s third-largest LNG exporter after the US and Australia. As well, Russia has temporarily halted the loading of foreign oil tankers at its key Black Sea ports, requiring all vessels to obtain permission from the FSB. This could impact the supply of up to 2% of the world’s oil.