European demand for Russian liquified natural gas (LNG) is at a record high, despite the sweeping sanctions brought in against Moscow over the war in Ukraine, according to a report by environmental organizations released on Tuesday.
The organizations also said that Kremlin-backed gas accounted for at least 3 percent and up to 9.2 percent of total German gas imports in 2023.
Belgium, Spain, and France receive Russian LNG cargos, which they later re-export to other countries, the report says, making it difficult to trace the origin of the gas and allowing Germany to import Russian LNG despite banning its ports from receiving LNG shipments from Russia.
Gas transported from Belgian ports, for example, is often labeled as Belgian gas in official German databases, despite Belgium itself having no gas production facilities.
Belgium, France, and Spain have said that very little of the gas arriving in their countries is used domestically and that most is piped to other nations in the European Union.
The report specifically criticized German state-owned energy company SEFE, stating that it brought in 58 deliveries with a total volume of 4.1 million tons of Russian LNG through the port of Dunkirk, France, last year.
That is in comparison to 12 cargoes with a total volume of 880,000 tons in 2023, marking a six-and-a-half-fold increase in a single year.
After Russia invaded Ukraine almost three years ago, Brussels set a nominal target of eliminating all Russian fuel from the EU by 2027.
The study suggests that the bloc is currently far from being on course to hit that target.
“Russia is the second-largest LNG supplier for the EU, after the United States. Russian LNG accounted for about 6.6 % of the total gas consumption in the EU in 2024,” the study says.
“This allows all countries to claim they are not responsible for the rising imports of Russian LNG,” Koutsis said. “To finally put an end to this game, we are calling for the LNG to be tracked from the country of origin to the EU country where the gas is consumed.”
SEFE, which was owned by Russian state gas company Gazprom until it was nationalized by Berlin in 2022, said it did not disclose sales numbers, so could neither confirm nor deny the findings of the report.
It has a long-term contract with Russia’s Yamal LNG, operated by the Russian private energy group Novatek, which the German government said it is obligated to honor, according to the study.
The study further states that Berlin also says that failing to honor the contract could otherwise allow Novatek to market the gas elsewhere, potentially allowing the company to double its profits.
DUH Federal Managing Director Sascha Müller-Kraenner said that the German government must take responsibility.
“The German government must urgently change its political and economic course, advocating for an immediate European embargo on Russian LNG,” Müller-Kraenner said in a statement. “This is essential for both security and climate policy. Only by expanding renewable energy can Germany and Europe achieve stable and more affordable energy independence.”
The Epoch Times reached out to SEFE for comment and did not receive a response by publication time.
