The European Commission is postponing key elements of the EU's methane rules for oil and gas importers, German technology and science outlet heise online reports, citing high energy prices as the motivation. The decision affects the import side of the bloc's Methane Regulation — the part that was meant to push foreign suppliers to curb leaks of a gas that traps far more heat per tonne than CO2 over the short term.
The EU Methane Regulation, in force since 2024, set a staggered timetable. Suppliers and importers were to begin measuring and reporting the methane intensity of the fuels they ship into the bloc well before binding limits were to bite in 2027. Delaying those obligations pushes the burden of compliance further out and blunts one of the EU's most direct tools for cutting emissions outside its own borders, since the bloc imports the large majority of the oil and gas it burns.
Officials have framed the move around high energy prices and concerns about European industrial competitiveness — the same argument that has slowed or reshaped several green files in recent years. Critics of the delay argue the methane regime was precisely the mechanism designed to make imported fossil gas account for its climate cost, and that postponing it hands a reprieve to producers with leaky infrastructure.
The report did not specify exactly which obligations slip, or for how long; the postponement concerns the implementation timetable rather than the regulation's existence. It lands as European governments continue to weigh strict energy-transition deadlines against consumer bills and industrial output. The precise scope and duration should be confirmed against the Commission's official texts.
