Europe's Record Russian LNG Purchases Top €7 Billion in First Eight Months of 2026

Europe's record purchases of Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the Yamal LNG Arctic project have exceeded €7.28 billion in the first eight months of 2026, surpassing the figure for all of 2025. This amount has already exceeded the total spent in 2025, which stood at approximately €7.3 billion.

According to Urgewald, a German non-governmental organization, European ports received 156 Yamal LNG cargoes totaling 11.39 million tonnes between January and August of this year. This represented an annual growth of 10.1% compared to the same period in 2025, during which Europe received 142 cargoes, or 10.34 million tonnes.

The majority of these volumes are supplied under existing long-term contracts, as purchases of LNG under short-term agreements were prohibited in April this year. Charles Costerousse, an energy analyst at Kpler, attributed the record spending to a simultaneous rise in European gas prices and an increase in the number of deliveries.