Qatar’s energy minister warned Monday that the Gulf state could freeze liquefied natural gas exports to Europe if the EU enforces its new Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive, saying the plan’s human rights and environmental clauses would make energy trade unworkable.
The Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) requires large companies to fix the "adverse human rights and environmental impacts" of their supply chains worldwide.
The law was backed by a broad coalition of European politicians, including the left and the greens as well as centrists, including some centre-right lawmakers.
But from the outset, the rules have also been attacked as too burdensome for businesses.
"If Europe does not look at how they can water down or cancel the CSDDD, and still have a penalty of 5 percent of our total world turnover as a penalty, we will not be delivering LNG to Europe, for sure," Qatar Energy Minister Saad Al-Kaabi said.
Qatar is one of the world's top LNG producers alongside the United States, Australia and Russia.
Demand has grown from European countries for the Gulf state's gas since Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine threw supplies into doubt.
In recent months, Qatar has inked LNG deals with France's Total and Italy's Eni as well as India's Petronet and China's Sinopec.
"All our partners and colleagues... know that, we in Qatar, have had the same policy and view on how we see the business, how we see the transition, how we see the need for oil and gas for the future, and that has not changed," the minister told an Abu Dhabi petroleum conference.
The text of the CSDDD was proposed by the European Commission in 2022 and was adopted in April 2024 is yet to come into force.
