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EU 🇪🇺 imports of Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG) were up 40% between January and July 2023. The EU is set to import record volumes of LNG from Russia 🇷🇺 this year, despite claims of cutting reliance on Russian energy. In the first 7 months of 2023, Belgium 🇧🇪 and Spain were the second and third-biggest buyers of Russian LNG behind China 🇨🇳. For this period, Russian LNG accounted for cubic metres (cm), or 16%, of the EU’s total cm of LNG imports. In that period, EU’s purchases of Russian LNG were worth $ billion ( billion euros). Spain is bought up 18% and the EU 52% of Russia’s LNG exports. Spain's 🇪🇸 Energy Minister T. Ribera ironically said Russian LNG should be part of EU talks on sanctions. The jump comes from a low base as the EU did not import significant amounts of LNG before Feb. 2022 due to its reliance on piped gas from Russia. The EU 🇪🇺 have worked so hard to wean themselves off piped Russian gas only to replace it with more expensive shipped equivalent from the US, Russia and others. EU officials have pointed to an overall effort to phase out Russian fossil fuels by 2027. EU energy ministers plan to ban Russian and Belarusian 🇧🇾 co.' s booking capacity on EU LNG infrastructure in an effort to find a legal way to prevent imports. The EU also banned Russian entities from storing gas in the bloc and prohibited most new investments in the Russian energy sector. Spot LNG prices have fallen significantly since last summer. As of last month, prices cooled by nearly 83% compared to 2022. The EU's gas storage tanks are nearly 92% full. However, market uncertainties, including the risk of strikes at LNG hubs in Australia 🇦🇺, or a spike in industrial demand can ignite volatility in European gas markets. A full energy crisis last year was avoided after LNG imports to Europe ballooned from 80 bcm in 2021 to 130 bcm in 2022, more or less replacing all the missing Russian gas. Источник: The Paradigm Shift Channel ⏳
