In May, Russia once again became Europe’s leading gas supplier and for the first time in two years it overtook the United States and this despite the 14 sanctions packages which are evidently useless on Moscow
This was reported by the Financial Times which analyzed the data relating to supplies for May and according to which the reversal of direction indicates the difficulty of the old continent in reducing its dependence on Russian gas, with several Eastern European countries still dependent on imports from Fly. It is no coincidence that two days ago Germany vetoed, sparking heated controversy, the new sanctions which included a total stop to the import of Russian gas. Scholz clearly said that such a sanction would seriously damage German companies.
The British newspaper cites data from Icis (Independent commodity intelligence service), according to which. Last month, gas and LNG shipments from Russia accounted for 15% of total supplies to the EU, UK, Switzerland, Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and North Macedonia, despite sanctions. In fact, Moscow still continues to guarantee supplies to Europe via the gas pipelines crossing Ukraine and Turkey in view of the pipeline maintenance scheduled for June. Liquefied gas from the United States instead stopped at 14% of the supply to the region, marking the lowest level since August 2022. The main users of LNG are France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands and Belgium.
The British newspaper highlights how the reversal shows the difficulty of the old continent in reducing its dependence on Russian gas, with several Eastern European countries still heavily dependent on imports from Moscow.
In 2019, the last “normal” year before the war and pandemic, Russia exported gas worth around 50 billion dollars a year while oil exports were worth almost 190 billion. Russia is the first country in the world for gas reserves and the third for crude oil reserves.
Facts & Events editorial team
