Germany talks loudly about ending Europe’s import of Russian gas, but as a result of alternative sources of energy, it has seen imports of Russian LNG soar by 500% in 2024 year on year, worth a total of €7.32bn, delivered via other European countries, UBN reported on January 29.

Berlin has officially banned direct imports of LNG to its new facilities on the north coast, but it has been receiving Russian liquified gas via face-saving intermediatory ports.

Formerly Germany was heavily dependent on the import of Russian piped gas to power its economy and had not built LNG terminals making it almost entirely dependent on the Nord Stream 1&2 pipelines carrying gas from Russia’s giant Yamal gas fields to make landfall in Lubmin, a coastal town in northeastern Germany.

Following Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 Berlin banned any direct imports of Russian gas but has continued to import it via third parties. However, with reduced volumes and soaring costs, the end of cheap imported Russian gas has led to the deindustrialisation  of the German economy and sent the former powerhouse of Europe into a two-year long recession.

Data shows that Germany continues to acquire Russian LNG indirectly. The state-owned energy company Sefe, formerly part of Gazprom and nationalised in 2022, purchased 58 cargoes of LNG via the French port of Dunkirk last year – marking a more than 500% increase from the previous year, UBN reports.

While Germany has halted direct pipeline gas imports from Russia, between 3% and 9.2% of its gas supply still originates from Russia, reaching the country through other EU members according to the data.

A significant portion of Russian LNG arrives at Belgian ports, where it is re-gasified and transported via pipelines across Europe. Once in Germany, also home to the largest gas storage tanks in the EU, the gas is typically recorded as Belgian in official energy statistics, despite Belgium having no domestic LNG production.

Belgium is among the largest importers of Russian LNG, alongside Spain and France. In 2024, Russian LNG supplies to Europe reached a record 17.2bn cubic metres, with a portion of these shipments bound by long-term contracts that companies are unable to terminate.

Europe remains hooked on Russian gas and has been unable to find alternative sources of energy.

The EU is currently preparing a sixteenth  package of sanctions on Russia that will be released on the third anniversary of the start of the war in Ukraine. Despite recent calls by ten EU members to ban LNG imports to Europe, LNG will not be included in the upcoming sanctions package.

Russia exported a record 33.6mn tonnes (45.7bn cubic metres) of LNG to Europe in 2024, up 4% compared to 2023, according to Kpler, equivalent to a third of Russia’s pre-war exports of gas to Europe. And piped gas exports to Europe, largely to Hungary, Turkey and Slovakia, were up a hefty 20%.

More than half (52%) of Russian LNG exports went to the European market, which remains Russia’s most important market. China imported another 31 bcm via the Power of Siberia pipeline, more than doubling the volume of imports since the war in Ukraine started. The pipeline is designed to deliver up to 38 bcm of natural gas annually to China and a second Power of Siberia II will add another 50bcm if it is eventually built.

Discussions are also ongoing regarding a potential new route through Kazakhstan, capable of delivering up to 35 bcm annually. Russia reversed the flow of Soviet-era pipelines to Central Asia last year and is already sending about 5 bcm of gas to Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan.

Despite the energy dearth, EU leaders are still calling for a ban on Russian imports of gas, a call repeated last week by German Christian Democratic Union (CDU) leader Friedrich Merz, who is widely expected to take over from German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in a February general election.

The Eu recently published a roadmap for abandoning Russian LNG by 2027 but remains the subject of intense debate as EU members are deeply divided on the issue.

The largest buyers of Russian LNG in the EU in 2024 were France (6.3mn tonnes), Spain (4.8mn tonnes), Belgium (4.4mn tonnes) and the Netherlands (1.3mn tonnes).

But this distorts the true picture of consumption: the same Germany, which banned the reception of gas carriers with Russian LNG at its terminals, imports gas through France. As a result, even now 3-9% of the gas consumed in Germany is of Russian origin. The total share of Russian LNG in EU imports approached 20% in 2024, up from 15% a year earlier.

The main buyers in Asia – China and Japan – overtook the European leaders only slightly, having received 7mn tonnes and 5.7mn tonnes respectively.

Two-thirds of the LNG for export (21.1mn tonnes) was shipped by the Russian company Novatek from its plant in the Yamal gas fields.

Russia's total share of the EU gas market, taking into account the cessation of pipeline gas supplies since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, has fallen from 40% to 6%.