As Brussels is considering sanctions on Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG), its exports have seen significant growth this year, boosted by demand in China, Japan, France and Spain.
According to data shared with “Naftemporiki” by the ICIS commodity monitoring platform, in the first quarter of 2024 Russia exported 11.87 million metric tons of LNG by sea, compared to 10.41 million metric tons in the corresponding period last year, which was up 14% year-on-year.
These are cargo exports from the Yamal LNG plant in the Arctic, Sakhalin in eastern Russia and Portovaya near St. Petersburg.
China remains the leading recipient of Russian cargoes this year. In particular, the large Asian country imported 2.44 million metric tons of LNG in the first quarter of 2024 from 2 million metric tons in 2023.
Japan is next with shipments of 2.21 million metric tons this year from 1.97 million metric tons last year, followed by France, whose imports soared year-on-year growth to 2.16 million metric tons this year’s first quarter from 1.21 million metric tons in 2023.
Spain is also very close, with cargo imports that reached 1.93 million metric tons, when in the January-April 2023 period the corresponding figure was 1.65 million metric tons.
The other major importer, Belgium, received 1 million metric tons of Russian LNG this year from 1.29 million metric tons last year.
Moreover, India imported 70,584 metric tons this year, when last year it had not received any cargo.
As for Greece, its imports in the first two months of this year – there were no flows in March and April – amounted to 128,301 metric tons from 72,452 metric tons in the first four months of last year (it received cargoes only in February).
As ICIS LNG analyst Alex Froley told “Naftemporiki”, the big European companies (such as Shell, TotalEnergies, Naturgy) are still receiving the cargoes, based on the long-term contracts they have with Russia.
In general, however, he added, most companies try not to buy extra quantities than those stipulated in the contracts in question.
