LNG replaced Russian gas in the EU’s energy basket
While Russia’s share in natural gas imported by European Union (EU) countries has decreased from 41 percent to 10 percent in the last 3 years, the share of liquefied natural gas (LNG) has increased from 20 percent to 41 percent.
According to information compiled from the LNG report published by the EU Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER), global LNG consumption has increased by more than 40 billion cubic meters since the beginning of the Russia-Ukraine War, reaching 557 billion cubic meters.
Europe was the region with the largest demand increase, with an increase of 57 billion cubic meters compared to 2021, and accounted for more than a quarter of the total LNG trade.
Among the countries that wanted to solve the energy crisis that emerged in Europe after the Russia-Ukraine War by turning to LNG and storage, Germany achieved the highest increase in LNG imports with the facilities it commissioned.
EU countries imported 134 billion cubic meters of LNG, approximately 18 billion cubic meters of which were purchased from Russia.
France imported 30 billion cubic meters of LNG and Spain imported 25 billion cubic meters of LNG. The Netherlands, Italy and Belgium followed these countries.
According to ACER, although the share of LNG in the energy basket varies across EU countries, the common point for all of them is that they are turning to this source more compared to 2021.
Russia’s share in the natural gas imported by EU countries has decreased from 41 percent to 10 percent in the last 3 years. The share of LNG in imports increased from 20 percent in 2021 to 41 percent by the end of 2023.
“The ratio of LNG supply to total EU gas imports exceeded 40 percent in 2023, doubling its share in 2021. The large increase in LNG imports has led to a significant reduction in dependence on Russian pipeline flows in most EU countries,” the report said. statements were included.
The fact that mild weather conditions reduced natural gas demand throughout last winter also stood out as factors supporting Europe’s LNG imports.
Transit restrictions on the Panama Canal also led to the US sending LNG deliveries mostly to Europe instead of Asia.
Pointing out that approximately 60 percent of the volumes in the EU’s underground storages are still usable as of April 1, ACER said, “This is equivalent to approximately 60 billion cubic meters of natural gas or approximately 45 million tons of LNG. The stored volume corresponds to EU LNG spot imports.” “exceeds the annual demand for the market and contributes to reducing price volatility.” made his assessment.
50 billion cubic meters of LNG import capacity added since 2022
EU countries have added 50 billion cubic meters of LNG import capacity to their systems since 2022. It is stated that by the end of this year, this capacity will increase to 235 billion cubic meters and can meet more than 55 percent of Europe’s annual gas demand, based on the gas consumption average of the last 5 years.
According to the report, it is envisaged that additional projects in the planning phase could bring total import capacity of over 260 billion cubic meters to EU LNG by 2025.
On the other hand, Spain’s LNG capacity, which was 60 billion cubic meters as of the end of 2021, increased to 67 billion cubic meters by the end of 2023. France increased its capacity from 33 billion cubic meters at the end of 2021 to 39 billion cubic meters at the end of 2023.
Germany, which had no capacity in 2021, built 10 billion cubic meters of LNG capacity in 2022 and 3 billion cubic meters in 2023. It is expected that another 17 billion cubic meters will be added to this by the end of 2024.
It is anticipated that Italy will have 22 billion cubic meters of LNG capacity, the Netherlands 20, Belgium 15, Greece 12, Poland 9, Portugal 8, Finland 5 and Lithuania 4 billion cubic meters of LNG capacity by the end of 2024.
According to the report, only about 60 percent of the total import capacity is used.