Industry Min. Jozef Síkela (STAN), who is scouring the globe for new LNG, continues to mislead Czechs about the degree of their reliance on Russia for natural gas. He boasts about how gas imports from Russia fell to zero in Jan. but says nothing about Russian LNG, which is inevitably being mixed into what Czechs are burning in their furnaces. The EU’s 10th sanctions package is “turning up the pressure in response to Putin’s brutal war” but specifically excludes LNG from the new “prohibition on Russian nationals and entities to book gas-storage capacity in the Union.” Bloomberg reported in late Jan. that LNG shipments to Europe from all over the world – including Russia – have surged and that the German government wants to take action to curb the Russian LNG. The risk to Czechs is that Síkela won’t be able to find enough replacement LNG on his foreign jaunts before Germany or the EU decides that it’s time to quit turning a blind eye to this sanctions loophole.

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