International Energy Agency chief warns European Union against returning to Russian gas reliance

IEA's Fatih Birol says Europe must avoid Russian gas reliance despite high prices, pointing to a 300 BCM wave of new LNG supply arriving over the next five years.

By: AXL Media

Published: Mar 6, 2026, 9:23 AM EST

Source: The information in this article was sourced from Ukrinform

Strategic warnings amid energy price surges

Fatih Birol, the head of the International Energy Agency (IEA), issued a stern warning to European leaders on Friday regarding the temptation to resume large scale gas imports from Russia. Speaking after a high level meeting with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Birol argued that the continent's previous over reliance on a single energy source was a fundamental historical error. He noted that while the current Middle East crisis has reignited debates in some quarters about returning to Russian supplies, such a move would be strategically short sighted given the changing landscape of the global energy market.

Projected influx of liquefied natural gas

A key pillar of the IEA’s recommendation is the anticipated arrival of a massive volume of liquefied natural gas (LNG) on the global market. Birol projected that a "huge wave" of approximately 300 billion cubic meters (BCM) of new LNG capacity will become available over the next five years. This influx is expected to significantly ease current price pressures and provide Europe with a more diversified and secure energy portfolio. In the immediate term, Ukraine has already begun diversifying its own supplies, preparing to import U.S. LNG via the Klaipeda terminal in Lithuania for the first time.

Legislative and economic relief measures

The European Union is currently under intense pressure from both industrial sectors and national governments to mitigate energy costs, which have nearly doubled since the commencement of U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran. President von der Leyen has pledged to present a suite of possible solutions for EU leaders to consider at an upcoming summit. Options currently under discussion among EU officials include the reduction of taxes and tariffs that inflate energy bills, as well as granting governments greater latitude to use state aid to support energy intensive industries. However, analysts note that the bloc remains divided on a long term solution to its inherent vulnerability to global price fluctuations.