France and Belgium became leaders in Russian LNG purchases in 2026

In 2026, France and Belgium became the main buyers of liquefied natural gas from Russia among European countries. This was reported by Kommersant with reference to data from analysts at Kpler.

Based on the results of January-September, importers from the first country purchased a total of 4.7 million tons of the key fuel from Russian suppliers, and 2.9 million from the second country. The top 3 largest European buyers were completed by the Netherlands, where 1.25 million tons were sent.

At the same time, Spain, which took fourth place in the ranking, demonstrated rapid growth in demand for Russian LNG. Since the beginning of the year, the kingdom’s imports of this type of domestic fuel have jumped by 46 percent, experts concluded.

Soon, the European energy market, considered key for Russian gas exporters until 2022, will finally close. From January 1, 2027, a ban by the European Union (EU) authorities on the purchase of domestic LNG will come into force. As for pipeline gas from Russia, it will no longer be supplied to the EU from September 30.

In the current realities, Russian exporters are unlikely to be able to fully compensate for the lost volumes at the expense of Asian importers. In the context of the energy crisis, Asia-Pacific countries do not want to depend on several foreign suppliers and are relying on diversifying the geography of imports. This strategy has become even more urgent given the widespread disruptions in Middle Eastern energy supplies due to the blockage of the Strait of Hormuz.