%20(3).png){kind=small}
![TFD [LOGO] (10).png](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/bea252_c1775b2fb69c4411abe5f0d27e15b130~mv2.png/v1/crop/x_150,y_143,w_1221,h_1193/fill/w_179,h_176,al_c,q_85,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_avif,quality_auto/TFD%20%5BLOGO%5D%20(10).png)
Poland To Stop Importing Russian Oil By Yearend
- By The Financial District
- Mar 31, 2022
- 2 min read
Poland announced steps Wednesday to end all Russian oil imports by year’s end, while Germany issued a warning about natural gas levels and called on people to conserve, new signs of how Russia’s war in Ukraine has escalated tensions about securing energy supplies to power Europe, Monika Scislowska and Frank Jordans reported for the Associated Press (AP).
Photo Insert: The business center of Gazprom in St. Petersburg, Russia's largest company and the largest publicly listed natural gas company in the world.
Poland, which has taken in millions of Ukrainian refugees, has taken the lead in the European Union (EU) on swiftly cutting off Russian fossil fuels.
The 27-nation bloc has declined to sanction energy because it depends on Moscow for the fuel needed for cars, electricity, heating, and industry, but it has announced proposals to wean itself off those supplies.
“We are presenting the most radical plan in Europe for departing from Russian oil by the end of this year,” Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said at a news conference. It comes a day after Poland said it was banning Russian coal imports, expected by May.
Morawiecki says Poland will take steps to become “independent” of Russian supplies and is calling on other EU countries to “walk away” as well. He argues that money paid for Russia’s oil and gas is fueling its war machine.
While some in Europe are calling for an immediate boycott of all Russian oil and natural gas, the EU plans to reduce Russian gas imports by two-thirds by the end of the year and eliminate them before 2030. In the meantime, rattled energy markets have pushed up already high oil and natural gas prices for Europeans and others worldwide.
The EU is turning to investments in renewable energy as a long-term fix but also is scrambling to shore up alternative sources of fossil fuels, including a new agreement with the US to receive more liquefied natural gas, or LNG, that arrives by ship.
