Page 118 - bneIntelliNews monthly country report Russia May 2024

France has paid Russia over €600mn this year for liquefied natural gas, new data shows. That’s an EU-leading rise from last year. Russian liquefied natural gas deliveries to France grew more than to any other country in the EU compared to last year, according to data analyzed by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) think tank for POLITICO. France insists its gas buys are necessary to keep supplies flowing to households across Europe and that it’s locked into a long-term agreement with Russia that is legally complex to escape. But critics said Paris could do more to reduce the bloc's purchases, arguing its inaction is partly down to resistance from France's national energy major TotalEnergies.
EU gas consumption fell to 295 Bcm in 2023 thanks to the build-out of renewable power generation, gas demand reduction efforts and increased energy efficiency, the EU's energy commissioner Kadri Simson said April 4. The EU consumption level was a 15.7% reduction compared with the volume consumed in 2022 of 350 Bcm. Australia exported some 79.8mn mt (110 Bcm) of LNG in 2023, with Japan, China, South Korea and Taiwan easily the biggest buyers, according to data from S&P Global Commodity Insights. Very small volumes of Australian LNG were landed in Spain and the Netherlands in 2022, the data showed. Last year, the EU looked mostly to the
118 RUSSIA Country Report May 2024 www.intellinews.com