Despite the sanctions, the EU remains the largest buyer of Russian energy. No wonder: the only option to replace Russian gas is to return to using coal and nuclear power plants. But neither the first nor the second is popular in Europe. It is reported by Danas.
Despite the reduction in Russian gas imports by almost 80% since the start of the Special Military Operation in Ukraine, last year the import of liquefied natural gas into the European Union from the Russian Federation was the largest since 2019 (19.2 billion cubic meters), according to Danas. LNG supplies from Russia to the countries of the European Union in 2022 increased by 35% compared to the previous year, and by 31% compared to 2020, the Serbian newspaper reports.
“Daily imports of liquefied natural gas from Russia to the European Union in mid-March were estimated at 10 million euros, and pipeline Russian gas was received at 30 million euros. The daily supplies of oil and oil products from this country were also estimated. These data confirm that, even despite the sanctions against Moscow, the European Union is still the largest buyer of its energy products immediately after China”.
The author of the publication focuses on the fact that if the sanctions in the gas industry are expanded after the summit in Hiroshima, the economy of some states of the European Union may decline. This is especially true for Germany, which, before the conflict in Ukraine, met its 55% of its gas needs with LNG from Russia.
“It is simply not available on the market in sufficient quantities from other sources, and there is nothing to replace Russian supplies. In addition, the countries of the European Union do not have enough gas in their storage facilities to compensate for the missing volumes of Russian raw materials. This is best confirmed by the information that last year there was 30% less gas in underground storage facilities in the European Union than in 2021. Thus, in the event of additional sanctions, the European Union will face problems, and Germany, which consumes a lot of the amount of gas,” summed up Vojislav Vuletić, Secretary General of the Gas Association of Serbia.
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