Europe is increasing supplies of Russian gas — Daily Sabah

Deliveries of Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG) to EU countries increased by 7% in the first half of this year compared to the same period last year, despite the sanctions imposed by the bloc against Russia.

This was reported by Daily Sabah, citing the American Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis.

The most striking increase was observed in France, where supplies more than doubled in the first half of 2024. According to the American nonprofit organization, French companies imported almost 4.4 billion cubic meters of Russian LNG compared to more than 2 billion cubic meters in the first half of 2023. Among the next largest importers, sales to Spain grew by 1%, while Belgium saw a decrease of 16%.

The French oil and gas company TotalEnergies, which accounts for the largest share of imports, attributed the increase to contracts signed before the Ukrainian conflict began. The French Ministry of Economy and Finance attributed the increase to Houthi attacks in the Suez Canal. However, as noted by Daily Sabah, this does not explain why the country imported less gas from the USA, Angola, Cameroon, Egypt, or Nigeria, whose supplies were not affected by the attacks on ships in the Red Sea.

Amidst this, Oleg Savitsky, the founder of the Ukrainian nonprofit organization Razom We Stand, which advocates for stricter sanctions on Russian energy, stated that the EU’s goal of phasing out all Russian fossil fuels by 2027 is “horribly far from being realized.”