Qatar threatens to cut off EU LNG supply amid sustainability policy concerns: spokespersons

The European Commission and the Belgian government have received a letter from Qatari Minister of State for Energy Affairs Saad al-Kaabi threatening to cut off LNG supplies to the EU unless it modifies its Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD), a Commission spokesperson and spokesperson for Deputy Prime Minister of Belgium Maxime Prévot confirmed to Platts on July 28 and 29.

The EC letter was dated May 13, 2025, according to the spokesperson. Both the EC and Belgian spokespersons declined to provide further details about the communication.

Platts has not seen the full letter, first reported by German newspaper Welt am Sonntag.

State-owned QatarEnergy did not respond to a request for comment. Al-Kaabi is also the CEO of QatarEnergy.

CSDDD

The communication is the latest move in Qatar's long-simmering frustration with the CSDDD. In December, al-Kaabi told a forum in Doha the legislation was "ridiculous" and threatened to pull LNG supply to the EU if it meant being subject to the law's penalties.

Under the CSDDD, which was adopted in summer 2024, companies with annual sales of more than Eur450 million ($519 million) in the EU that fail to meet certain sustainability and corporate behavior criteria in their operations could face financial penalties.

The penalty for not meeting the requirements of the directive on points such as net-zero operations and tier-three emissions would be up to 5% of a company's total worldwide sales.

In February, the European Commission proposed a series of modifications to the CSDDD, including to its structure for punitive fines. Among the changes would be deleting the requirement for fines to be commensurate with a company's net worldwide turnover and charging the EC with developing "fining guidelines."

The European Council and Parliament are currently considering the EC's proposed changes.

"It is now for them to negotiate and adopt the substantive simplification changes proposed by the Commission," the EC spokesperson said.

Qatar supply

Qatar is a significant supplier of LNG to the EU. In 2024, it shipped about 10 million mt of the superchilled fuel to the trading bloc, accounting for about 12.1% of its imports, according to data from S&P Global Commodity Insights. This made it the EU's third-largest supplier behind the US (36.6 million mt) and Russia (15.6 million mt).

Russia's share, however, is expected to shrink in the coming years as the EU seeks to wean itself off Russian LNG and gas imports. The trading bloc is considering a proposal by the EC to phase out all Russian LNG and gas entering the EU by the end of 2027.

At the same time, a wave of new LNG is expected to hit the market, particularly from the US and Qatar, with supply projected to rise by 62.2 million mt and 30.8 million mt respectively from 2025-2028, according to data from S&P Global Commodity Insights.

As part of the recent US-EU trade deal agreed on July 27, the trading bloc has committed to purchasing $750 billion in US LNG, oil, and nuclear fuel over the next three years. Analysts, however, are skeptical about the feasibility of such a surge in purchasing.

Platts, part of S&P Global Commodity Insights, assessed the DES Northwest Europe LNG Marker at $10.987/MMBtu on July 28.