The British government said that LNG is an important source of funding for Russia’s illegal aggression against Ukraine, adding that Moscow plans to increase its liquefied gas revenues by raising its share in the global market from 8% to 20%.
Earlier this year, the U.K. alongside the U.S. and the European Union, imposed sanctions on Russia’s flagship Arctic LNG 2 terminal, as a result of which the project was forced to slash production.
“Today’s action builds on this by targeting ships and entities involved in the Russian LNG sector, which engage with projects important to Russia’s future energy production,” the government in London said in a statement.
“The U.K. has now sanctioned 15 vessels and entities involved in the Russian LNG sector and we will continue to bear down on this important source of funding for [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s illegal war in Ukraine,” it added.
Russian fuel revenue still high
Despite a series of increasingly restrictive sanctions imposed on Russia since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Moscow’s revenue from mineral fuel exports has remained comparable to 2019 levels.
According to the Brussels-based think tank Bruegel, EU countries imported
more liquefied natural gas from Russia than from the United States in the second quarter of 2024.
Michał Matlak, a policy advisor to the European Parliament, told TVP World that this situation is due in part to infrastructural problems in the U.S, forcing the EU to rely on Russian LNG.
“The sanctions introduced after the full-scale invasion really changed the way the EU is buying its energy,” he said, adding: “It’s buying much less from Russia.”
“But it’s complicated and it's difficult, obviously without certain kinds of facilities like Nord Stream, the natural alternative seems to be LNG.
“It’s true that in May, Russia was the biggest exporter of LNG to Europe, bigger than the U.S., but it happened because of some infrastructure problems in the U.S.”
Matlak said that experts believe that once those infrastructural issues have been resolved, the U.S. will become the biggest exporter of LNG to Europe.
