EU’s imports of U.S. LNG 5 times higher than Russian supply

Warsaw, January 17 - Neftegaz.RU. So far this month, the European Union has received U.S. natural gas volumes 5 times higher than Russia’s pipeline deliveries, according to Poland´s outlet rp.pl, the 1^st time in history in which American LNG has surpassed Russian gas deliveries.

Last month, at least 30 tankers with LNG from the United States were headed to Europe, where the gas and energy crisis pushed regional LNG prices way above the Asian LNG benchmark and 14 times higher than the U.S. Henry Hub price.

At the same time, Russian gas deliveries have been lower than usual in recent weeks.
Low Russian supply and cold weather have been the 2 main drivers of rising gas prices in Europe in recent weeks when Russia’s deliveries via Poland and Ukraine have been lower than historical norms.

Low natural gas deliveries from Russia appear to have artificially tightened the European gas market, the International Energy Agency’s Executive Director Fatih Birol said on Thursday, adding that energy systems «face significant risks» by relying too much on one supplier for a key energy source.

Birol wrote in a LinkedIn post:

• We see strong elements of ‘artificial tightness’ in European gas markets, which appears to be due to the behaviour of Russia’s state-controlled gas supplier

Even with normal winter weather conditions, Europe faces storage inventories dropping to a record low of below 15 billion m³ by the end of March, Wood Mackenzie said on Thursday.


Author: Charles Kennedy