The European Union will need more time to reach an agreement on the G7 price cap on Russian oil, European Commissioner for Energy Kadri Simson said on Thursday.
EU energy ministers will discuss the price cap proposal on Thursday.
"Late last evening they decided [the EU ambassadors] that they will continue the discussions," Simson said, ahead of the Extraordinary Transport, Telecommunications and Energy Council in Brussels.
According to reports, the proposal instantly created divisions between EU members, thus energy ministers are unlikely to reach an agreement on Thursday. Italy, in turn, said that the mechanism seemed inefficient and could stimulate speculation. And according to Greece, the EU needs a "more realistic" market correction mechanism to tackle rising gas prices.
On Tuesday, the European Commission presented a Market Correction Mechanism to curb extreme gas price surges in the European Union. The mechanism implies a price ceiling of 275 euros ($283) for gas futures on the TTF, Europe's main natural gas futures market. The ceiling will be activated only if two criteria are met: first, the gas price exceeds 275 euros for two weeks and, second, the spread between the TTF price and global liquefied natural gas price is 58 euros or more for more than 10 trading days.
