EU lawmakers urge French, German & Italian ECASs to ditch Arctic LNG 2 support

(Reuters, London, 18 May 2021) A group of mostly Green Party lawmakers from the European Parliament on Wednesday urged the leaders of Germany, France and Italy not to support a Russian Arctic liquefied natural gas (LNG) project due to climate change concerns. The $21 billion project, led by Russian gas producer Novatek and with international backers including French oil major Total TOTF.PA, is expected to launch in 2023 and reach full LNG production capacity of almost 20 million tonnes a year in 2026. "We urge the French, German and Italian governments to refuse to support this project and set a new standard by ending all export finance support to fossil fuels before COP26," the letter said.