This chart traces the composition of European Union (EU27) natural gas imports, distinguishing pipeline deliveries from liquefied natural gas (LNG). The underlying data are drawn from ENTSO-G, a European aggregator that provides a daily, and even hourly, time-series at practically every European natural gas transit point. The figures cover the EU27 and therefore exclude UK LNG receipts, which pass through that country’s two large terminals.
The chart documents a formidable shift in European import reliance from pipelined gas toward LNG. A combination of European sanctions policy against Russia, the failure to renew pipeline transit agreements, and related developments has moved Europe from a position in which the majority of its natural gas imports arrived by international pipeline to one in which the majority now arrives as LNG. Since mid-2022, the bulk of that Europe-bound LNG has come from the United States, and the growth in U.S. LNG exports to Europe over the last three years has been substantial—a pattern that EIA data corroborate.
A companion breakdown of European LNG imports by receiving region shows the dominance of Northwest Europe, much of which is handled through France. Germany’s floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU), in place for three years, is now recording considerably large LNG receipts as well.
From the EPRINC Chart of the Week archive.