Here’s who is (again) the main gas supplier to Europe. Putin is happy, the Russian economy is soaring

Despite the war in Ukraine and despite Western sanctions, according to estimates by the International Monetary Fund the Soviet economy this year would record a GDP growth of the 3.2%. In this way Russia would place itself at the third place in the world for the growth of 2024behind only theIndia (+6.8%) and of China (+4.6%). Behind Putin’s country, the United States with +2.7%, while the European data are much more limited: +0.7% per France and Italy and +0.2% for Germany. But this is not the only fact that cheers Moscow. Last month, in fact, Russia returned to being the first gas supplier in Europe surpassing the United States. The data is particularly significant, because it is the first time that this has happened since the EU began to impose sanctions against the Tsar’s country. Reporting on the Soviet “overtaking” of the USA is theIcis (Independence Commodity Intelligence Service): Supplies of liquefied natural gas and Russian gas have exceeded 15% of the total supply to the EU and the UK. While the American ones are stuck at 14%.

The news agency Reutersthen, reports that exports of Gazprom have increased by 7.3% compared to April and 39% every year. Data that led the director of energy analysis at Icis, Tom Marczec-Manser, to state that “it is surprising to see the market share of Russian gas increasing in Europe, after everything we have been through and all the efforts made to decouple and reduce risks in energy supply”. According to analysts, this phenomenon should only be temporary. But, upon closer inspection, it is also the demonstration of Europe’s difficulty in replace Russian energy supplies. It is not just some eastern countries that have Moscow as their main supplier. Also Belgium, France and Spain continue to purchase liquid gas from Gazprom. And that’s why theEuropean Union approved a new package of sanctions on Russia which directly affects the Soviet LNG.

The European crackdown is aimed at preventing not imports, but the re-export of Russian gas in other countries. This is to limit Moscow’s earnings and prevent Putin from financing the war on Ukraine through the sale of gas. But, despite everything, it remains clear that Europe needs Soviet gas, otherwise it would risk falling into an energy crisis with serious consequences. In any case, according to analysts, the share of Russian gas destined for Europe will decrease in the near future, and for two main reasons. Which will resume at full capacity American production, which had suffered a stop due to the closure of an important plant in the US. And that Russia simply will shift its supplies to Asia. A fact that worries both Brussels and Tokyo, which have in fact established a “rapid alert” system to monitor LNG shortages so that European institutions and Japan are always ready to intervene in the event of a crisis.

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