Almost three years ago, when war broke out in Ukraine, the European Union imposed numerous sanctions on Russia. The aim was to cut off the EU countries completely from fossil fuels from Russia. This appears to have failed.

Moved up to 2nd place

However, this did not actually succeed: as far as liquefied natural gas is concerned, the opposite is actually the case.

The EU imported more LNG from Russia than ever before. According to data from energy analysis company Rystad Energy and the Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA), Russia supplied around 17.8 million tons of liquefied natural gas last year - more than two million tons more than in 2023.

Russia has thus become the second largest importer of liquefied gas in the EU, relegating Qatar to third place. The USA still holds first place.

Sanctions planned from March

The reason is simple: Russian gas, whether via pipelines or as liquefied gas, is cheaper than gas from other countries.

So far, Russian liquid gas has not been affected by the sanctions. Brussels wants to change this in March. Gas will therefore become more expensive for political reasons.