As Russia squeezes the flow of natural gas, German officials are urgently turning toward an option they had earlier disregarded: liquefied natural gas.
Holding together despite some nations’ dependence on Russia, the European Union agreed to make voluntary savings mandatory if the Kremlin suddenly decides to turn off the taps over its invasion of Ukraine.
On the eve of a European Union meeting to debate a gas conservation plan to make the bloc less vulnerable to a Russian squeeze, Moscow slashed the flow to Germany.
Gazprom, Russia’s state energy giant, said it would halve the amount of gas it sends to Germany through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, bringing it down to 20 percent of capacity.
European Union officials have called on countries in the bloc to sharply reduce their natural gas consumption. These are some of the strategies they could use.