The EU has bought all supplies of LNG from Russia's Yamal facility in Siberia over the past three months <a target="_blank">(Photo: Sylvain Thomas)</a>
The EU has bought all supplies of LNG from Russia’s Yamal facility in Siberia over the past three months (Photo: Sylvain Thomas)

EU and the World

EU keeping Russia’s Arctic LNG project ‘alive’, despite year-end import ban

By Benjamin Fox,

A record amount of Russian liquefied natural gas from the Yamal LNG project in Siberia reached the EU, despite its promises, now set down in law, to ban Russian fossil-fuel imports by the end of the year. 

The EU received 91 cargoes from Yamal between January and April, equivalent to 98 percent of all Yamal LNG exports worth an estimated €3.8bn, according to new analysis of Kpler data published on Friday (8 May) by Urgewald, a German environmental NGO.   

“The EU’s ban on LNG imports via short-term contracts is a step forward, but long term contracts remain the core problem,” said Sebastian Rötters, sanctions campaigner at Urgewald, who argued that “Europe keeps Russia’s Arctic LNG business alive.” 

“As long as these exist, Europe will continue sending money to a Russian gas project that doesn’t have a lucrative future without the EU,” he added. 

China received just two cargoes in January, but none in the last three months. 

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The EU has bought all supplies of LNG from Russia’s Yamal facility in Siberia over the past three months (Photo: Sylvain Thomas)

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Author Bio

Benjamin Fox Benjamin Fox is our trade and geopolitics editor. His reporting has also been published in the Guardian, the East African, Euractiv, Private Eye and Africa Confidential, among others. He is based in Nairobi, Kenya, although he often reports from London.