Gas imports to Europe from Russia in May exceeded supplies from the United States for the first time in almost two years, despite the region's efforts to wean itself off Russian fossil fuels after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Financial Times reports, according to UNN.
Details
It is pointed out that this emphasizes the difficulties of further reducing Europe's dependence on gas from Russia, while several Eastern European countries still rely on imports from their neighbor.
"It's impressive to see that the market share of Russian gas and (LNG) in Europe has grown by a few inches after all we've been through and all the efforts that have been made to decouple and reduce energy supply risks," said Tom Majec-Mancer, head of gas analytics at ICIS.
After Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Moscow cut pipeline gas supplies to Europe, and the region increased its imports of LNG, which is delivered on specialized vessels, with the United States becoming the main supplier.
The United States overtook Russia as a gas supplier to Europe in September 2022, and from 2023 onwards, it will account for about a fifth of the region's gas supplies.
However, according to ICIS, last month gas and LNG shipments through the Russian pipeline accounted for 15 percent of total supplies to the EU, the UK, Switzerland, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and North Macedonia.
According to ICIS, LNG from the US accounted for 14 percent of supplies to the region, the lowest level since August 2022.
"The reversal comes amid a general increase in European imports of Russian LNG, despite the fact that several EU countries are pushing for sanctions against them," the newspaper writes.
May deliveries were reportedly affected by one-off factors, including a failure at a major US LNG export facility, while Russia sent more gas through Turkey ahead of scheduled maintenance in June. Gas demand in Europe also remains relatively weak, with storage volumes close to record levels for this time of year.
According to ICIS's Majec-Mancer, this reversal "will likely not last long" as Russia will be able to supply LNG to Asia via the Northern Sea Route in the summer. According to him, this will likely lead to a reduction in volumes shipped to Europe, while US LNG production has increased again.
The transit agreement between Ukraine and Russia also expires this year, jeopardizing flows through this route, the publication notes.
The European Commission supports efforts to create an investment plan to expand pipeline capacity in the Southern Gas Corridor between the EU and Azerbaijan.
At the same time, a senior EU official reportedly said that supplies via this route are currently insufficient to replace the 14 billion cubic meters of Russian gas that currently pass through Ukraine to the EU every year.
EU Energy Commissioner Kadri Simson said that during a trip to Japan this month, she expressed concern about the diversion of LNG from Europe to meet Asian demand.
She said Tokyo and Brussels have set up an "early warning system" to monitor LNG shortages and agreed that both should take energy conservation measures.
"The EU is ready to mitigate any negative supply or demand developments on global gas markets," she added. - "Our gas storage capacity remains at record high levels and our gas demand has stabilized at record lows, down 20 percent compared to 2021.