Huge blow to Europe’s chances of becoming less reliant on Russia and Putin’s laughing
In May, Russia surpassed the US as Europe‘s top gas supplier for the first time in almost two years. This change highlights the ongoing challenges Europe faces in reducing its reliance on Russian energy despite efforts to move away from it following the invasion of Ukraine.
“It’s striking to see the market share of Russian gas and LNG inch higher in Europe after all we have been through, and all the efforts made to decouple and de-risk energy supply,” said Tom Marzec-Manser, head of gas analytics at consultancy ICIS.
Despite some EU countries pushing for sanctions on Russian LNG, Europe has seen an increase in imports. Russia continues to supply gas through pipelines via Ukraine and Turkey, even though it stopped sending gas through pipelines to north-west Europe in mid-2022.