Russia second most important source of natural gas for the EU

25.09.2025

Source: E & M powernews

The USA has become the EU's most important gas supplier over the last four years. In terms of import value, Russia was number two for gas in July.

In July 2025, the EU-27 imported a total of 25.83 billion euros worth of oil, natural gas and coal from third countries, according to the latest figures from the European statistics authority Eurostat. Of this, oil accounted for around 71 percent (18.36 billion euros), natural gas for just under 27 percent (6.87 billion euros) and coal for just over 2 percent (0.60 billion euros).

Before the war of aggression in Ukraine began, Russia was by far the largest energy supplier to the EU. This applied to each of the energy sources mentioned. In terms of the value of energy imports from Russia to the EU, the share of oil was 23% in July 2021, 43% for natural gas and 45% for coal. In total, the EU purchased coal, oil and natural gas worth €6.13 billion from Russia in July 2021. In July 2025, this figure was just under 79% lower at €1.31 billion.

Of the 1.31 billion euros that the EU spent on fossil energy imports from Russia in July of this year, 995 million euros were spent on natural gas and 318 million euros on oil. Coal was no longer imported from Russia. In July 2025, the value of natural gas imports from Russia was split between liquefied natural gas (LNG) at 657 million euros and natural gas purchased by pipeline at 338 million euros.

USA largest energy supplier for the EU

Instead, the USA has become the largest energy supplier for the EU. The import value of energy purchases from the USA has more than doubled in the last four years, from €2.11 billion in July 2021 to €4.75 billion in July 2025. Of this, oil purchases accounted for €2,542 million, LNG for €2,002 million and coal for €202 million.

The USA is now by far the EU's most important supplier of natural gas. Compared to July 2021, LNG imports from the USA to the EU have increased eightfold. In July 2025, they accounted for 29% of the EU's total natural gas imports from third countries. The USA even accounted for 54% of the EU's LNG imports. Russia, Algeria, Norway, the UK, Azerbaijan and Qatar followed in the ranking of the next most important natural gas supplier countries - pipeline and LNG combined. In terms of import value, Russia was therefore still the second largest source of natural gas for the EU in July.

The global supply of LNG is expected to increase by more than 5% in 2025 as a whole. This is mainly due to the commissioning of new LNG projects in North America. These include the Plaquemines LNG project and the Stage 3 expansion of the Corpus Christi LNG export plant.

As the International Energy Agency further reports in its latest quarterly report on the gas market, the LNG supply is expected to increase by 40 billion cubic meters in 2026, which is 7% compared to 2025. This would be the strongest increase since 2019. The main drivers of this growth are the expansion of export opportunities in the USA, Canada and Qatar. This development is likely to favor the EU Commission's efforts to end exports of LNG from Russia by the end of 2026.

Hans-Wilhelm Sschiffer