EU’s May Gas Imports Drop due to Scheduled Maintenance

To assess the success of European efforts in shifting away from Russian gas, the EOA issues a monthly tracker for the EU’s external gas imports through pipelines from Russia, Azerbaijan, Norway, and North Africa (Algeria and Libya), as well as in the form of LNG cargoes from top suppliers like the US, Qatar, and Nigeria. The tracker also forecasts gas prices based on current market dynamics.

As scheduled maintenance activities in Norway, Algeria, Libya, and Russia affected piped gas supplies to Europe in May, the share of LNG increased in the EU’s import mix, reaching about 50%. Meanwhile, although the US shipped less LNG to the EU in May compared to April, it remains the bloc’s main LNG supplier.

Russian Piped Gas to EU Declined by 11.7% m/m in May

According to the EOA’s calculations for May 2023, and based on data from the European gas transmission platform (Entsog), the Kremlin-controlled Gazprom shipped 1.94 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas to Europe (EU and Ukraine) via Ukraine, and the TurkStream pipeline through Turkey, a decrease of 11.7% month on month compared to April (see Figure 1 below).

According to the EOA’s calculations, Gazprom exported 1,231 million cubic meters (mcm) of gas via Ukraine through the Sudja (also spelled as Sudzha) gas station,  of which 127 mcm of gas entered Ukraine, while the remaining 1,104 mcm was shipped to EU member states. Gazprom’s average daily gas exports through the Sudja gas station averaged 39.7 mcm in May, slightly up from 39.4 mcm in April, based on the EOA’s calculations.