The European Union’s planned shift away from Russian LNG would be a historic shift in energy trading with the added benefit of counter-cyclically boosting import demand, Evercore says.

Part of the plan hatched by European leaders last week includes cutting Russian gas imports by two-thirds, or 112bn cubic feet, by the end of the year, while beefing up depleted reserves in an effort to break its reliance on Russian LNG following the invasion of Ukraine.