More than a fifth of Russia’s liquefied natural gas reaching Europe is reshipped to other parts of the world, including China, Japan and Bangladesh, according to data from the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, a think-tank, the Financial Times has informed.
This practice helps to boost Moscow’s revenues despite the EU’s efforts to descrease them in response to the war in Ukraine.
Ports in Belgium, Spain and France still receive large volumes from the Siberian plant Yamal LNG, whose biggest shareholders are Russia’s second-largest natural gas producer Novatek, China National Petroleum Corporation and the French energy company TotalEnergies.
While contracts for so-called transshipment of Russian LNG have been banned in the UK and the Netherlands, data from 2023 suggests permitted Russian gas shipments are repeatedly transferred between tankers in those countries before being exported to other continents.
Read more:
- Spain and Belgium increased Russian natural gas imports by up to 50%
- Latvian president: West must keep on providing military aid to Ukraine as “Russia plans for a long war in Ukraine”
- British intel: Kremlin now has more direct control over the Wagner Group
- Russia attacked Kherson Oblast 62 times over the past day, killing one, injuring seven