MOSCOW, June 24. /TASS/. The European Union's ban on the re-export of Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG) from European ports, which will come into effect in nine months, will increase the price of gas supplies, but will not significantly affect the industry’s future, experts interviewed by TASS believe.
"The ban on re-exports will lead to an increase in the price of LNG supplies and a decrease in the load on Arctic facilities. The good news is that there is a solution to this problem - a shit-to-ship transshipment of Russian LNG in the Murmansk region and year-round supplies of LNG along the Northern Sea Route, which Novatek has already started," Research Director at Implementa Maria Belova said.
According to her, although the 14th package of sanctions will complicate matters for Russian LNG facilities, on the other hand, it will spur companies to look for alternative solutions. "Targeted US sanctions are much more serious for our projects are, and as you know this list tends to grow," she added.
Deputy Head of the Energy Security Fund Alexey Grivach noted that the bad news for the Russian LNG industry is that these are a precedent - the first pan-European sanctions against existing supplies of Russian gas. On the other hand, they were adopted in the most simplified version and come into force only after a nine-month "transition period." "This gives additional time for all participants in the supply chain to prepare. I think they will not significantly affect the ability to export LNG from existing projects," he noted.
InfoTEK expert, Deputy Director General of the Institute of National Energy Alexander Frolov believes that the EU ban imposed by the European Union looks twofold. On the one hand, it may complicate LNG sales from the Yamal LNG plant to the countries of the Asia-Pacific region, since the Northern Sea Route is not accessible all year round. On the other hand, the EU is the main market for LNG produced in Yamal.
"The total LNG imports of the European Union this year are smaller than in the same period in 2022 and 2023, falling to the values seen in 2021 in some weeks. This is due to the ongoing decline in gas demand, as well as the premium that suppliers receive on the Asia-Pacific market. Thus, a ban on transshipment can serve as a protective mechanism for the European Union, which will not allow local companies that have bought LNG in Russia to resell it to Asia," the expert said.