The lack of principles characterising the Belgian liberal MEP is clearly demonstrated by his blatant disregard for both the origin of energy carriers, and the pollution they cause when it comes to his own interests. His ability to demonise Russian gas in the public eye and speak out against climate change speaks volumes about his hypocrisy.

In our previous article, we unveiled that Guy Verhofstadt may have serious financial interests in getting as many countries in Europe as possible to abandon pipelined energy carriers and to invest in seaborne energy deliveries instead. The liberal Belgian MEP used to sit on the board of a shipping company specialising primarily in the transportation of LNG or liquefied natural gas by sea. In addition, the company takes an active part in providing ground services, storing and transforming energy carriers on almost every continent. It comes as no surprise that Exmar is also present in Europe and played an important role in encouraging more and more places in Europe to rely on LNG.

Mr Verhofstadt joined the company’s board in 2010, and since then he has been lobbying for an ever wider use of tankers that transport LNG or LPG, or possibly for storing and regasifying the energy carriers in ports.

Mr Verhofstadt, known for his immense wealth and crazy outbursts in parliament, appears to have abandoned every principle, as evidenced by the fact that

the shipping company also signed an agreement with Gazprom, the largest Russian company, which happens to provide a direct link between him and Russian President Vladimir Putin. It is noteworthy that the shipping company concluded the agreement, when President Putin, now perceived as a war criminal by many, annexed the Crimean peninsula.

Pacific Rubiales Energy Corp. and Gazprom signed a five-year agreement covering approximately 500,000 tonnes of liquefied natural gas a year. The former is a Canadian-based company, which at the time owned 100 percent of Meta Petroleum Limited, a Colombian firm operating in the oil and gas sector. The latter belonged to the Russian state-owned energy giant Gazprom. Exmar also played a role between the two partners, and the LNG cargo was processed and stored in the barge of the Caribbean FLNG and then fed into the system.

Nicolas Saverys, Exmar’s CEO at the time, said that the agreement was very important and it opened up a wide range of opportunities.

Guy Verhofstadt was already on the board of Exmar.

In any case, Mr Verhofstadt is not at all interested in the origin of the energy carriers, neither does he care about the fact that the transport of energy by sea is extremely polluting and more expensive than using pipelines. Yet he regularly presents himself in the European Parliament as a green politician and takes to social media to promote the cause of saving the planet. Back in 2017, he wrote that climate change and pollution don’t respect borders.

Climate change & pollution don’t respect borders. Without EU, there would not have been an international agreement to fight climate change. pic.twitter.com/298QPmoN49

— Guy Verhofstadt (@guyverhofstadt) April 17, 2017

He also welcomed the EU’s Green Deal with great enthusiasm.

New Green Deal targets 2030 agreed!👇🏻The EU is not always a good sprinter, but the marathon goals of our societies could never be achieved without it.🌍 https://t.co/jHQpYb1QN6

— Guy Verhofstadt (@guyverhofstadt) September 10, 2020