The Russian invasion of Ukraine is having an impact on liquefied natural gas (LNG) transport routes around the world. According to a recent report by the maritime broker Banchero Costa, during the first quarter of 2022 the EU imported 22.1 million tons of LNG by sea, which represents a year-on-year increase of 72.8%, compared to 12.8 million tons in the same period of 2021. Likewise, according to the analysis published by the Spanish shipping company Anave, this maritime transport activity of gas makes the EU the world’s largest importer with a share of 20.9%, even ahead of Japan (19.7%) and China (15.7%).
In the map of gas discharges in the old continent it has special protagonism the Port of Sagunt. In fact, the global crisis in the energy sector generated by the conflict over the invasion of Ukraine is marking the beginning of 2022, as reflected by the arrival of natural gas at the docks of the Port of Sagunt. In the first quarter of this year, a total of 994,855 tons of natural gas have already arrived at the Camp de Morvedre site compared to 223,843 in 2021, 342.3% more. USA is the main importer of this energy source with 70% of imports that have been discharged at the Sagunt regasification plant, followed by countries such as Oman and Nigeria.
In the month of March alone, according to the Statistical Bulletin of the Port Authority of Valencia (PAV), the arrival of natural gas has exceeded 300,000 tons, much more than the entire quarter of 2021.
Spain is the country with the largest number of regasification plants in Europe: six (Bilbao, Mugardos, Huelva, Cartagena, Sagunt and Barcelona) are in operation and another (El Musel) was completed in 2012 but has not yet been installed. underway due to problems in court. These infrastructures are part of the twenty regasification plants that exist in the old continent and that allow it to represent 30% of the storage capacity of liquefied natural gas (that is, 3.31 million cubic meters), according to data from Enagás .
Among the EU countries, France imported 6.4 million tons of natural gas during the first quarter of 2022; Spain, 5.4; Italy, 2.6; Belgium, 2.0; Portugal, 1.2; Poland, 0.8 and Greece 0.7. According to the aforementioned Banchero Costa report, “an equally significant growth in imports to the United Kingdom has been seen.” In the first quarter of 2022, UK LNG imports totaled 5.7 compared to 3.8 million tons in the same period of 2021 (+51.3%). In the case of China and Japan, imports suffered a slowdown. China fell 13.9% year-on-year to 16.7m tonnes in the first three months of 2022 compared to 19.4m in the same period last year. In Japan, imports decreased by 10.8% year-on-year to 20.9 compared to 23.5 in 2021.
On the other hand, there has been a notable increase in LNG imports from the United States to the EU. In the first quarter of 2022, the EU imported 10.4 million tons from the other side of the Atlantic, which represents an exceptional increase of 234.8% compared to 3.1 in the same period of 2021. The United States monopolized a 46.9% share of EU seaborne LNG imports in the first quarter of 2022.
in 2019 the EU became the world’s third largest importer of LNG by sea, with a share of 15.8%, only behind China (20.2%) and Japan (19.7%). Imports increased considerably that year, thanks to the start-up of a series of projects, to 65.6 million tons, growing 65.4% compared to 39.7 in 2018.
“The pandemic and a weakening economy, with a consequent drop in energy demand, also reduced imports. The Russian invasion of Ukraine has pushed Europe to secure alternative energy sources and has reversed the downward trend of the last two years,” the report concludes.