France “imported more Russian LNG than any other European country in the first quarter of 2026”.
(AFP / ALAIN JOCARD)
While all purchases of Russian gas must cease in the EU in the fall of 2027, imports of Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG) into European countries reached a record level in the 1st quarter since 2022, the year of the start of the war in Ukraine, according to a study by the IEEFA think tank published on Wednesday May 13. Figures which underline the dependence of the European continent on Russian gas, at a time when the conflict in the Middle East is disrupting global hydrocarbon supplies.
Drawn by France, Spain and Belgium,
EU imports of Russian LNG increased by 16% in the first quarter of 2026 year-on-year
reaching 6.9 billion m3, a highest since 2022, according to a study by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis published Wednesday. The trend is similar in April where European imports of Russian LNG further increased by 17% year-on-year, IEEFA told AFP.
Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Europe, in search of diversification, has boosted its LNG imports to reduce its historical dependence on Russian gas transported by gas pipelines: in 2025 they represented 45% of its gas imports, the rest being transported by gas pipelines, according to the commission. European.
But Russian gas continued to flow:
Russia remains the second largest supplier of LNG to the EU,
and this, while the European Commission approved the ban on all imports of Russian gas into the European Union by the fall of 2027, in order to deprive Moscow of resources financing its war in Ukraine.
Europe’s ‘Achilles Heel’
France notably “imported more Russian LNG than any other European country in the first quarter of 2026”
with a record reached in January, according to the think tank.
At the same time, Europe has increased its supplies of American LNG since the war in Ukraine, and again since the war in the Middle East, to the point that
the United States is “on track to become the main gas supplier to the continent in 2026”
according to IEEFA.
In the 1st quarter, Norway remained the leading supplier to the European Union, with a share of 31%, but closely followed by the United States (28%), then Russia (14%), for all its imports (gas pipelines and LNG), according to data from the European Commission.
“Europe’s shift from pipeline gas to LNG was supposed to ensure security of supply and diversification. Yet disruptions caused by war in the Middle East and an over-reliance on US LNG show that
Europe’s plan has failed on both fronts
“, said Ana Maria Jaller-Makarewicz, analyst at IEEFA, quoted in the statement.
“LNG has become the Achilles heel of Europe’s energy security strategy”
“exposing” it to “high prices and new forms of disruption of supplies”, she added.
According to the think tank, the EU could source 80% of its LNG imports from the United States by 2028.
