Alexey Belogoryev, Research and Development Director of the Institute for Energy and Finance, commented to RBC on Russian LNG exports in 2024 and its prospects for 2025.
"Supplies, although growing, remained well below expectations due to the late and sluggish start of shipments from Arctic LNG 2 and relatively weak demand for Sakhalin LNG," he notes.
"From alternative sources, we see an increase mainly in shipments from Portovaya LNG against a slight decrease from other plants. But supplies were close to record levels anyway, despite Arctic LNG 2's winter downtime. The main reason is the high seasonal demand," the expert explains.
Belogoryev attributes the continued high share of Europe in the overall structure of LNG supplies from Russia to logistics. Western Europe and the Baltic are the closest geographically global demand centers for all Russian plants except Sakhalin-2. The delivery time there is three times shorter than to the alternative markets of Northeast and South Asia, which is especially important given the limited fleet of LNG carriers available to Russia, he says.
"As long as the EU market is available to Russia, supplies there will remain a priority," the expert believes.
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