He said: What we are seeing is a lot of the European nations are talking to talk but theyre not walking the walk. For example, no French companies have actually pulled out of Russia.
“So BP and Shell have terminated their operations in Russia, Total has not. It still has its 20% stake in Novatek. It said its not going to invest anymore but it hasnt actually withdrawn from Russia at all.”
He added: “The EU gets more than a quarter of its oil needs from Russia at present… They sort of said that they impose sanctions, but theyre not starting until the second half of this year, they actually extended the date for the sanctions to come into play rather than bring them forward.
“If the EU did bite the bullet and impose sanctions, I think they would have to face the reality of energy shortages, such as rolling blackouts, rationing of energy, which would impact industry, and this would probably, in the long term, tip the EU into a recession.”
Listen to Ashley Kelty on Times Radio.
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