In 2024, Europe purchased a record amount of Russian liquefied gas, according to The Guardian.

In 2024, European ports received 17.8 million tons of Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG), which is 2 million tons more than in 2023.

Source. This is reported by The Guardian citing analysts from Rystad Energy.

As a result of the increased supply, Russia surpassed Qatar and became the second-largest supplier of LNG to Europe after the United States.

Analyst Jan-Erik Fenrich emphasized that the flows of liquefied gas from Russia to Europe last year not only increased but "reached record volumes." According to him, some of the liquefied gas will be resold to other countries.

According to Fenrich, in 2024, the supply of liquefied gas on ships from Russia to European ports constituted almost half of the volume of Russian gas supplied through pipelines to Europe and Turkey.

The Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) provides similar figures. According to its data, the volumes of LNG supplies from Russia to Europe in 2024 amounted to 17.5 million tons.

CREA analysts believe that the reason for the increase in imports is the low cost of Russian liquefied gas:

“In the absence of sanctions on this product, companies are acting in their own interests and purchasing increasingly larger volumes of gas from the cheapest supplier.”

In June 2024, the European Union adopted the 14th package of sanctions against Russia, which includes a ban on the transshipment of Russian LNG through European ports: from ship to ship, from ship to shore, gas transshipment operations on EU territory, and related services.

However, the sanctions did not affect the direct import of LNG into the EU, which some European countries depend on.

Background. Since January 1, Kyiv has refused to extend the gas transit agreement with Russia. Gas was received through Ukraine's pipeline by countries including Moldova, Slovakia, and Austria. The Ministry of Energy of Ukraine called this decision a historic event.

“Russia is losing markets, and it will incur financial losses,” said the head of the ministry, Herman Halushchenko. The ministry noted that international partners were informed about the cessation of gas transportation.