Deliveries of Russian liquefied natural gas to countries EU 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, Daily Sabah reports, citing the US Institute of Energy Economics and Financial Analysis.
The most striking increase was seen in France, where shipments more than doubled in the first half of 2024. According to the US non-profit, French companies imported almost 4.4 billion cubic metres of Russian LNG, up from more than 2 billion cubic metres in the first half of 2023. The next largest importers, Spain and Belgium, saw sales rise 1% and fall 16%, respectively.
French oil and gas company TotalEnergies, which accounts for the largest share of imports, attributed the increase to contracts signed before the Ukrainian conflict. And the French Ministry of Economy and Finance attributed everything to the Houthi attacks in the Suez Canal. However, Daily Sabah notes, this does not explain why the country imported less gas from the United States, Angola, Cameroon, Egypt or Nigeria, supplies from which were not affected by the attacks on ships in the Red Sea.
Against this backdrop, Oleg Savitsky, founder of the Ukrainian non-profit Razom We Stand, which advocates for tougher sanctions on Russian energy sources, said that the EU's goal of phasing out all Russian fossil fuels by 2027 is “terrifyingly far from being realized.”
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