Member of the European Parliament (EP) from the Netherlands Tom Berendsen spoke about the existence of loopholes that are used to supply Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG) to the countries of the European Union (EU). This was reported by Lenta.ru .
He stressed that in the third quarter of 2024, the volume of LNG imports from Russia through the port of Rotterdam doubled compared to mid-2022.
According to him, this may be related to the 14th package of EU sanctions against Russia, which includes a ban on gas transshipment from Russia to countries outside the EU, which is why the remaining flows are imported to Europe. Such gas imports are not currently subject to restrictions, Berendsen noted.
The parliamentarian called for this loophole to be closed as soon as possible.
It was reported the day before that Russia, following the results of the third quarter, once again overtook the United States in terms of gas supplies to the European Union. According to the results of the third quarter of 2024, the Russian Federation supplied 13.3 billion cubic meters of gas to the European market, compared to 13 billion in the previous quarter and 11.5 billion for the same period in the previous year.
Earlier, Belgium called on the EU to ban LNG supplies from Russia.