U.K. Wants G-7 to Set Russia Energy Limits for Europe: Truss

(Bloomberg) -- The U.K. would support Group of Seven nations setting limits on the amount of Russian oil and gas its members could import “over time,” said Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, in a potential escalation of the impact of the war in Ukraine on energy markets. 

Russia’s military “is funded by revenues from oil and gas, so what we have to do is reduce dependency on oil and gas,” Truss told Sky News on Sunday. 

“What we need to do is we need to agree with our G-7 counterparts, because we are not going to be able to do this alone, we need to agree to reduce that percentage over time, that’s what’s important,” Truss said. It wasn’t clear from her comments if work in the G-7 was already under way on the issue. 

Germany depends on Russian gas for more than half of its demand, followed by Italy and France where dependence is around 30%. Truss said about 3% of U.K. energy supplies are Russian gas, meaning any cap would have a limited impact on the U.K. 

Truss said there needs to be common ground on the issue with the G-7, which includes the U.S., Canada and Japan as well as Germany, France, Italy and the U.K. 

“I would be in favor of having ceilings on how much oil and gas is imported from Russia so that over time we cut the dependency right across Europe, that’s what we’re working on with our G-7 partners,” she sad. 

©2022 Bloomberg L.P.