EU port ban on Russia's LNG re-export comes into effect
The European Union's ban on re-exporting Russian liquefied natural gas via EU ports, which aims to reduce Moscow's revenues after its invasion of Ukraine, came into effect this week.
The ban, which prohibits the reloading of Russian cargoes at EU ports for export to third countries, was imposed in June 2024, with a moratorium until March 26, 2025 for contracts signed before June 25 last year.
Gas market experts say the measure would have little impact as trans-shipments via EU ports to Asia represent less than 10 per cent of total Russian LNG exports, but suppliers would direct this volume to Europe.
Russian LNG exports
Russia is the world's fourth-largest LNG producer with annual exports of 34.7 million tonnes in 2024, up four per cent in 2023. Analysts estimate that around 2.7 million tonnes were re-loaded at EU ports for exports to Asia in 2024.
The EU has no imminent plans to stop buying Russian LNG. It has said it will try to wean itself off Russian gas by 2027, thanks to rising exports from Norway, the United States and Qatar.
According to a study by global energy think tank Ember, Russian natural gas imports into the EU increased by 18 per cent in 2024.
"This trend continues in 2025, with the EU averaging 74.3 million cubic metres per day of Russian LNG imports in February, an 11 per cent monthly increase," the study said.
Trans-shipments
Russian LNG exports become reliant on EU ports from November to June because thick ice prevents traditional LNG vessels from accessing Yamal LNG's Arctic terminals of gas producer Novatek.
Cargoes are transported via special ice-breaking vessels to EU hubs, where they are re-loaded, via ship-to-ship transfer (STS), into regular gas carriers and exported to countries including China, Taiwan, India and Turkey.
Novatek, Russia's largest LNG producer and Yamal LNG's main shareholder, has long-term contracts to sell over 17 million tonnes per year of LNG to Europe to firms such as state-owned China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC), oil majors Shell and TotalEnergies, German company Securing Energy For Europe (SEFE) and global commodity trader Gunvor.
Two terminals
Russian trans-shipments mainly take place at Belgium's Zeebrugge and France's Montoir LNG terminals.
Belgian gas transport operator Fluxys has a 20-year contract with Yamal LNG for gas trans-shipment at Zeebrugge.
French energy company Engie has a 23-year contract to handle the STS operations. The contract now resides with TotalEnergies after it acquired Engie's LNG portfolio.
Around 47 vessels have performed STSs at Zeebrugge and Montoir in 2024, said Robert Songer, analyst at data intelligence company ICIS. Based on an average LNG cargo size of about 70,000 tonnes, that represents around 9.2 per cent of total Russian LNG exports in 2024.
Impact on Moscow
A ban on LNG trans-shipment would have limited impact due to small volumes but would increase costs for Russian companies and disturb logistics.
"Russian LNG can still be easily trans-shipped within Russian waters at Murmansk or Kaliningrad or in other potential locations in the Mediterranean, much like Russia already does for its crude and refined products," said Charles Costerousse, senior LNG analyst at Kpler.
(Reporting by Marwa Rashad in London, Julia Payne in Brussels and and Alban Kacher in Gdanskand Alban Kacher in Gdansk; Additionalreporting by Emily Chow in Singapore ; Editing by Mark Potter and Marguerita Choy)
