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Russian liquefied natural gas imports to the EU have reached a record high this year despite the bloc’s attempt to cut off dependence on gas from the country following Moscow’s full-scale war on Ukraine.
Europe imported a record 16.5mn tonnes of Russian LNG as of mid-December, above last year’s imports of 15.18mn tonnes, according to commodities data provider Kpler. The amount is also higher than the last record of 15.21mn tonnes imported in 2022.
“What we have seen this year is surprising,” said Ana Maria Jaller-Makarewicz, an analyst at the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis. “Instead of gradually reducing Russian LNG imports, we are increasing them.”
Following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the EU set a target of stopping imports of any Russian fossil fuels by 2027, but shipments of the super-chilled gas arriving in European ports have continued to rise.
Unlike gas imports via pipelines which have dwindled to a trickle, and Russian oil and coal, which are banned in the EU, imports of Russian LNG are still allowed and growing, in a sign of how a “panicking” Europe is still struggling to wean itself off cheaper supplies, said Jaller-Makarewicz.
Analysts have pointed to an increased purchase of Russian LNG on the spot market this year — 33 per cent of the EU’s imports of LNG of Russian origin have been done under spot contracts this year, compared with 23 per cent last year, said Rystad Energy, an energy consultancy.
Companies such as Shell and Equinor have announced they are not purchasing Russian LNG on the spot market. Other traders have said that since the invasion, there are often clauses in contracts for spot cargoes that ensure the LNG “is not of Russian origin”.
However, spot trades this year have increased as traders “can get cargoes delivered cheaper [from Russia]”, said Christoph Halser, gas analyst at Rystad.
He added that LNG shipped from Russia’s Yamal terminal to Europe had a “significantly lower” price than the gas shipped from the US.
Europe previously imported about two-fifths of its gas from Russia, most of which was through pipelines. Now, overall gas imports from Russia, including pipeline gas, only account for about 16 per cent of the EU’s gas supplies.
EU officials are convinced that the bloc does not need Russian fuels, even if it means accepting higher prices to buy gas elsewhere.
But Russian LNG accounted for 20 per cent of the EU’s overall imports of the seaborne fuel this year, up from 15 per cent last year, ship tracking data shows. Not all Russian LNG brought to Europe is consumed in the region, with some being reloaded and shipped to other parts of the world.
Volumes into France have jumped this year, almost doubling from 2023. More than half the shipments have gone to the import terminal at Dunkirk, according to data from Kpler.
French energy companies EDF and TotalEnergies, as well as German state-owned energy company Sefe have terminal use agreements there.
Belgium was the second-largest importer of Russian LNG because its port of Zeebrugge is one of the few European points of transshipment for LNG from ice-class tankers used in the high north to regular cargo vessels. EU governments have agreed to ban these transshipments of Russian LNG from Yamal to non-EU countries, a measure which will come into force in March 2025.
Dan Jørgensen, the EU’s new energy commissioner, has promised to present a plan next year for how the bloc can meet the 2027 target to wean itself off all Russian fossil fuels.
European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen signalled in October that the bloc could increase US imports as a way to placate US president-elect Donald Trump, who has threatened broad trade tariffs.
Trump has warned that the EU must commit to buying “large scale” amounts of US oil and gas or risk facing tariffs.
Additional reporting by Ray Douglas and Daria Mosolova
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