Liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports from Russia to the EU reached their highest level in the first quarter since 2022, the year the war in Ukraine began, according to a study by the IEEFA think tank, which underlines the European continent's dependence on Russian gas at a time when the conflict in the Middle East is disrupting global hydrocarbon supplies, according to AFP.
With the largest imports by France, Spain and Belgium, EU purchases of Russian LNG rose 16 percent in the first quarter of 2026 from the same period last year to 6.9 billion cubic meters, the highest level since 2022, according to a study by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis published on Wednesday.
The trend continued in April, when European LNG imports from Russia rose again, up 17 percent year-on-year, IEEFA told France Presse.
France imported the most Russian gas
Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Europe, seeking to diversify, has stepped up its LNG imports to reduce its historic dependence on Russian pipeline gas: they accounted for 45% of its gas imports in 2025, with the rest transported by pipeline, according to the European Commission.
But Russian gas has continued to flow: Russia remains the EU's second largest LNG supplier, as the European Commission decided to halt all Russian gas imports into the European Union until autumn 2027, to deprive Moscow of the resources that finance its war in Ukraine.
France “imported more Russian LNG than any other European country in the first quarter of 2026,” hitting a record in January, according to the think tank.
In parallel, Europe has increased its supply of US LNG since the start of the war in Ukraine and especially since the start of the conflict in the Middle East, to the point where the United States is “on track to become the continent's main gas supplier in 2026”, according to IEEFA.
In the first quarter, Norway remained the main 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 European Commission data.
“LNG, the Achilles heel of European energy security”
“Europe's transition from pipeline gas to LNG was supposed to guarantee security of supply and diversification. However, the disruptions caused by the war in the Middle East and the excessive dependence on American LNG show that Europe's plan has failed on these two fronts,” said Ana Maria Jaller-Makarewicz, an 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 supply disruption,” she added.
According to IEEFA, the EU could cover 80% of its LNG imports from the United States by 2028.
