Norway has replaced Russia as the biggest gas supplier of Europe, said the EU Commissioner Kadri Simson, as she was addressing a committee meeting and a press conference in the European Parliament, Trend reports via the European Commission.
“Since September 2022, Russian gas is about 8 percent of all pipeline gas imported in the EU. Pipeline gas imports from Russia amounted 61 bcm last year. The first gas supplier to Europe is no longer Russia. It is Norway,” she said.
Simson pointed out that the doubts about Europe’s inability to import enough liquified natural gas (LNG) to replace Russian gas also faded away. Europe opened three new terminals in less than one year, while 5 more are planned to be launched by late 2023 with total capacity of 50 billion cubic meters.
She noted that Europe imported a total of 135 billion cubic meters of LNG, with 56.4 billion cubic meters accounting for the US alone. As such, Europe’s LNG imports rose by 34 billion cubic meters year-on-year.
“The increase of gas supplies from other sources than Russia was almost 10 percent higher than the estimated in the March REPowerEU Communication. Overall, the EU phased out Russian gas by two-thirds. We backed up this diversification effort with new tools,” added Simson.
