LNG exports from Russia to the EU set a historical record

By Rhod Mackenzie

In March, Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplies to Europe reached a historical record of 2.15 billion cubic meters, according to Bruegel and reported by the InfoTEK portal.

This is the second highest volume of supply after the United States, which supplied 5.151 billion cubic meters of gas to Europe in March (including the volume of Trinidad and Tobago, but its share is small).

The previous record for gas supplies from Russia was broken in January of this year, with 2.059 billion cubic meters.

In March, the region received 1.328 billion cubic meters of gas from Africa and 1.085 billion cubic meters from the Middle East, according to EU statistics.

As of April, Europe has officially ended the heating season and has begun actively pumping gas into underground storage facilities (UGS). Thanks to a mild winter and reduced industrial demand, inventories have reached a record level of 65.4 billion cubic meters, according to data from Gas Infrastructure Europe.

The spot price of gas at the TTF site in the Netherlands for day-ahead delivery on April 11 at 09:00 was 28.1 euros per MWh, or $311 per cubic meter.

An increase in liquefied natural gas imports from Russia to the EU has been observed since the beginning of this year. As previously reported by Monocle, EU countries received 3.741 billion cubic meters from the Russian Federation in the first two months of 2024, compared to 3.464 billion cubic meters for the same period last year.

In 2023, LNG imports into the European Union amounted to 132.646 billion cubic meters, with 62.387 billion cubic meters supplied from the United States and 17.688 billion cubic meters from Russia, according to InfoTEK.

Supplies from Russia decreased slightly last year compared to 2022, while those from the United States increased. In 2022, Russia supplied 18.553 billion cubic meters, whereas the United States supplied 54.831 billion cubic meters.