Europe Imports Near Five-Year Low of LNG in August Amid Asian Competition

MOSCOW, September 2. /TASS/. Europe imported one of its lowest volumes of liquefied natural gas (LNG) for the month of August in the past five years amid intense competition with Asia for available supplies on the market due to the Middle East crisis, according to TASS calculations based on data from Gas Infrastructure Europe (GIE).

In August, LNG flows from European terminals into the EU gas transmission system totaled only around 9.1 billion cubic meters, up 8% from July but down 6% from August 2025. Over the past five years, Europe purchased a lower volume of LNG in August only in 2024, when imports totaled 7.3 bln cubic meters.

In January-August 2026, LNG flows from terminals into Europe's gas transmission system slowed to around 90.3 bln cubic meters, already 2.8% lower than in the same period of 2025.

LNG supplies accounted for the largest share of Europe's gas supply sources in January-August at 42.5%, according to data from the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Gas (ENTSOG) as of August 28. Supplies from the North Sea, primarily Norwegian gas, ranked second with a 37.5% share, followed by supplies from North Africa at 9.2% and supplies from the east at 6%, including Russian gas, gas supplied from Ukraine, as well as withdrawals by European companies of their own gas from Ukrainian underground storage facilities.

This exceeded the share of withdrawals from underground gas storage facilities, which stood at 1.5%. Gas supplies from Azerbaijan accounted for 3.4%.