From 2027, it will be prohibited to import liquefied gas from Russia by ship. The import of Russian gas via pipelines will also be banned at the end of 2027. Europe has decided that. This makes us less dependent on Russia and Russia cannot use the money to finance the war in Ukraine. Dirk De fauw, vice-chairman of the Port of Antwerp-Bruges: “There is an alternative to Russian gas. Normally this will have little impact on the port of Zeebrugge. If the gas does not come from Russia, it must come from America, Qatar or other countries. The ships will continue to come to Zeebrugge, to that LNG terminal.”
Transit port
Zeebrugge is an important transit port for gas. Since the end of March, the transhipment of LNG of Russian origin or exported from Russia has been banned in the European Union. “A lot of gas arrived in Zeebrugge. It was temporarily stored there in tanks. Then it went into another ship and was distributed all over the world. But that has been prohibited since March 25.”
Russian gas is already declining
That caused a shift. The supply of Russian gas by ship has fallen sharply to 40% in the past six months. More gas now comes from the United States: 38% and from Qatar: 16%.
Fluxys, which manages the gas terminal in Zeebrugge and also the gas pipelines in Belgium, does not want to respond before they have analyzed the texts from Europe.