Russian sales of liquefied natural gas to the EU hit record levels this year despite the bloc’s efforts to cut back on energy imports from Moscow, new data shows.
EU countries bought 9.5 million tons of LNG from Russia from January to July, according to the Kpler market intelligence firm, compared to 6.8 million tons in the same period of 2021, the year before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. That’s a 40 percent increase, making Russia the second-largest LNG exporter to the EU after the U.S.
The boost is even higher than last year’s purchases — which were also a record.
A separate report out Wednesday from the NGO Global Witness, using the same Kpler data, estimated that EU buyers paid €5.3 billion for the Russian LNG.
Those purchases overwhelmingly came from Spain, which accounted for 18 percent of Russian LNG sales, and Belgium, which bought 17 percent; France was in third spot among EU buyers. The three countries together bought more than 8 million tons of Russian LNG this year.
The EU hasn’t formally sanctioned Russian gas, but has said it wants to end imports by 2027. However, the surge in Russian LNG purchases shows just how difficult it is for the bloc to wean itself off Moscow’s energy.
The buyers often act as middlemen. Around three-quarters of Russian LNG sold on to other European countries passes through Belgium.
The EU is aware of the problem.
Energy Commissioner Kadri Simson previously told POLITICO that EU countries “should stop buying Russian LNG and not sign any new contracts with Russia once the existing contracts have expired.”
In March, member countries provisionally agreed to allow capitals to limit gas infrastructure capacity for deliveries from the Russian Federation and Belarus.
But that move, which came as part of wider talks on reforming the bloc’s gas and hydrogen networks, won’t be implemented for months when overall negotiations on the file are finished. It also won’t affect long-term contracts.
Spanish and French energy firms including Naturgy and TotalEnergies have long-term deals with Yamal LNG — a company majority owned by Russia’s Novatek — that expire in 2042 and 2032 respectively. The CEOs of both firms have said they won’t cancel their contracts.
While “the target of phasing … spot purchases is fully real and attainable, [long]-term deals will remain in place until the very end of their contractual length,” said Viktor Katona, Kpler’s lead crude analyst.
With no prospect of gas sanctions, Brussels is unlikely to block existing contracts, Katona said, both because it could damage the bloc’s security of supply and because there’s no real historical precedent in trade law for doing so.
“Even if the EU manages to ban entry of Russian LNG into its ports, respective companies that have been buying that LNG will most probably continue dealing with them after 2027,” Katona said.
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