Russia's Gazprom delivers first LNG shipment to Italy

Russian energy giant Gazprom has delivered its first cargo of LNG to Italy from the LNG Portovaya plant on the Baltic Sea, LSEG data showed on Wednesday.

Russia's pipeline gas supplies to Europe plummeted since 2022 after the military conflict in Ukraine, while sea-borne LNG supplies have been on the rise.

According to the LSEG data, gas carrier Cool Rover arrived to the FSRU Toscana terminal in the port of Livorno on Tuesday. Gazprom has not replied to a request for comment.

Russia's Yamal LNG plant has already supplied several cargoes to Italy over the past few years, according to LSEG database.

Small-scale plant LNG Portovaya, with annual capacity of 1.5 million tonnes, started operations in September 2022. First cargoes from the plant were supplied to Turkey, Greece and China.

In March, Gazprom also supplied its first LNG cargo to Spain.

Russia's January to November overall exports of LNG increased by 4.7 per cent from a year earlier to 29.1 million tonnes with just over half going to Europe, according to LSEG.

(Reporting by Oksana Kobzeva; writing by Vladimir Soldatkin; editing by Louise Heavens and Tomasz Janowski)