MOSCOW (Reuters) – The European Commission will propose banning Russian LNG imports by January 1, 2027, a year earlier than planned, as part of a 19th package of sanctions against Moscow, EU sources said on Friday. Following are some facts about Russia’s LNG exports by destination and volume.
TOTAL EXPORTS OF RUSSIAN LNG
Russia’s liquefied natural gas exports in January-August 2025 reached 18.8 million metric tons, of which 9.5 million tons were shipped to Asia and 9.2 million tons were exported to Europe.
RUSSIA’S LNG EXPORTS TO EUROPE
Russia’s share in EU imports of liquefied natural gas decreased to 14% in the second quarter of 2025 from 22% in the first quarter of 2021, according to Eurostat.
Novatek-led Yamal LNG is Russia’s supplier of the frozen gas to Europe.
France is the largest importer of Russia’s LNG in Europe, buying around 4 million tons in the first eight months of the year.
It is followed by Belgium (2.3 million tons), Spain (1.8 million tons), the Netherlands (around 1 million tons) and Italy (725,000 tons).
SOME LNG DEALS WITH COMPANIES
France’s TotalEnergies, which has a 20% stake in Yamal LNG, gets around 4 million tons of LNG per year from the project at Montoir-de-Bretagne.
Gazprom’s former unit in Germany, SEFE, has a contract for imports of 2.9 million tons a year from Yamal LNG at Zeebrugge.
China’s CNPC buys up to 3 million tons of LNG per year from Novatek.
The Russian company also has a contract with Spain’s Gas Natural Fenosa to supply 1 million tons of LNG from Yamal.
RUSSIA’S LNG EXPORTS TO ASIA
The Sakhalin-2 project, led by Gazprom, is Russia’s Asia-oriented LNG supplier.
China is the top buyer of LNG from Russia with imports of 4.1 million tons in January-August, including 300,000 tons from the new Arctic LNG 2 plant.
It is followed by Japan (3.7 million tons), South Korea (1.4 million tons), Vietnam (613,000 tons) and Taiwan (200,000 tons).
(Reporting by Oksana Kobzeva; Writing by Vladimir Soldatkin; Editing by Frances Kerry)
