A record amount of Russian liquefied natural gas, or LNG, was imported into the European Union last year, according to Bloomberg based on tanker tracking data.
In 2024, a total of 14.8 million tonnes of Russian LNG were imported into EU countries, based on data compiled by Bloomberg as of December 20.
Last year, Russian LNG was bought up to two million tons more than in 2023. In 2022, when Russia attacked Ukraine in February, 13.7 million tons of Russian LNG was imported to EU countries.
After the start of the Russian war of aggression, Europe has significantly reduced its dependence on Russian energy and imposed sanctions on Russian oil.
Last summer, the EU agreed on a sanctions package, which for the first time also included restrictions on LNG. However, it only concerned the export of Russian LNG to third countries via EU ports.
A complete ban has been proposed by several politicians around Europe, but a common line has not been reached.
Among others, Finland, the other Nordic countries, Germany and the Baltic countries have completely stopped importing Russian gas, including LNG.
Instead, according to Bloomberg data, for example, France bought record amounts of Russian LNG last year. Spain’s import volumes of Russian LNG also approached the previous year’s peak figures.
When Russian LNG is regasified in France, Belgium or the Netherlands, it will probably also flow more widely to the European market.
The importance of LNG will become even more important in Europe, now that at the turn of the year the transport of Russian natural gas through Ukraine to Europe ended when the five-year agreement concluded years ago expired.
Russia has been transporting natural gas to Europe via Ukraine since 1991, and the shipments continued under the agreement despite the war. The closing of the gas taps again forces Europe to think about how to fix the missing gas.
Possibly, the end of gas transport through Ukraine could also mean an even greater increase in the import of Russian LNG, unless the EU ends up imposing a complete ban on it.
Last year, the largest supplier of LNG to EU countries was the United States, Russia the second largest.
Addendum 2 January 2025 at 19:28: Added note that Finland has also stopped importing Russian LNG.
Decades of Russian gas through Ukraine
Russia has been transporting natural gas to Europe via Ukraine since 1991. Gas transports ended on January 1, 2024.
from Ukraine Russian natural gas has been transported to Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, Romania and Moldova, and from there on to other countries as well. Among these countries, Poland completely stopped buying Russian gas in early 2023.
of the Bruegel Institute according to statistics, the vast majority of natural gas passing through Ukraine has gone to Slovakia. In autumn 2024, Slovakia, Austria, Hungary and Moldova received the largest quantities of Russian natural gas passing through Ukraine.