Liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports out of Russia fell by 3% in January through May from a year earlier, amid tighter EU restrictions on transshipment and U.S. sanctions on a new LNG project that can’t find buyers yet.
Russia’s LNG shipments dipped by 3% year-over-year to 13.2 million tons in the first five months of the year, Reuters reports, citing preliminary data from LSEG.
Exports to Europe slumped by 12%, while shipments in May alone declined by 14.3%, according to the data. That’s mostly the result of the EU ban on transshipment of Russian LNG for re-export to third countries from EU ports, which took effect in March this year.
The EU ban doesn’t concern imports for the EU markets, but prohibits EU terminal operators from reloading Russian LNG or re-exporting it to countries outside the bloc, as Europe looks to cut Russia’s energy revenues without compromising EU gas supply.
Moreover, the U.S. and EU sanctions on Russia’s Arctic LNG 2, which was billed as Russia’s flagship LNG project, have effectively frozen the start-up of the export facility in the Gydan Peninsula. The project has come under intensifying sanctions from the United States, which have put off any buyers that were previously considering buying cargoes from Arctic LNG 2.
Meanwhile, Russia’s natural gas deliveries via pipeline to Europe jumped by 10.3% in May compared to April. Last month, Russia’s gas giant Gazprom sent 46.0 million cubic meters of natural gas via the only remaining route to Europe – TurkStream, per Reuters estimates based on data from Entsog, the European gas transmission group.
Last month, the EU unveiled a roadmap to end dependency on Russian energy.
The roadmap calls for the EU to stop all imports of Russian gas by the end of 2027 by improving the transparency, monitoring, and traceability of Russian gas across the EU markets. New contracts with suppliers of Russian gas will be prevented and spot contracts (for immediate payment) will be stopped by the end of 2025, the European Commission said.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com