Belgium Leaps Ahead as European Union Buys Record Amount of Russian LNG

The European Union purchased €809mn worth of Russian liquefied natural gas in June, a 57% increase from the same period last year. Belgium was the largest buyer, accounting for €268mn of those purchases.

This made Russia the second-largest supplier of LNG to the EU by value, behind only the US on 54.3%. The bloc also imported an additional €542mn worth of Russian pipeline gas in June, which accounted for 12.5% of all its pipeline gas imports.

Hungary was the largest buyer of Russian pipeline gas, spending €1.3bn in the first half of the year, a 12.5% decrease from the same period last year.