“Belgium remains hub for Russian gas”: imports rose 28 percent last year | Interior

The second part of the EU embargo on Russian oil products comes into effect on Sunday. From now on, refined petroleum products, such as diesel, will no longer be allowed on the European market.
However, the NGOs complain that the European Union and Belgium speak with a double tongue in this regard. On the one hand, the import of Russian oil is being restricted, on the other hand, both Europe and our country imported more Russian LNG last year. For the entire EU this is an increase of 36 percent, for our country it is 28 percent more, calculated by Greenpeace Belgium. “Russian gas now represents 12 percent of Belgian gas imports. Belgium is a hub for the European gas market,” says Mathieu Soete, energy expert at Greenpeace Belgium.

This increase is largely due to the long-term contract signed in 2015 between Fluxys and Yamal LNG for the storage and transshipment of Russian LNG. Since 2019, when the supply of Russian liquefied gas really got up to speed, it has gone four times. Moreover, in 2021 just under 90 percent of all imported Russian gas was destined for export to non-European countries.

“As a hub for fossil gas from a country at war, Belgium must take its responsibility,” says Stefanie De Bock, campaign officer at Vredesactie. “Russia pays for its war with gas, among other things. The contract between Fluxys and Yamal LNG thus feeds into Russia’s war chest. Do politicians really attach more importance to the profits of the fossil economy than to human lives and climate preservation?”

In addition, the organizations argue, the increased import of Russian LNG also jeopardizes European and Belgian climate goals. Cooling and transporting LNG produces more CO2 and methane emissions than fossil gas via pipelines. In addition, according to the NGOs, the production of Russian LNG would also release twice as much methane as on average. “The significant increase in LNG imports in Belgium and Europe is therefore incompatible with our climate objectives,” says Angelos Koutsis, energy policy officer at Bond Beter Leefmilieu.

The NGOs also point to the higher risk of price shocks due to the unstable LNG market and the risk of pricing poorer countries such as Pakistan or Bangladesh out of the market.

Calculations by Greenpeace Belgium show that since the start of the war on February 24, 2022, a total of 316 tankers with Russian oil products and LNG have docked in Belgian ports. These represent a volume of 12 million cubic meters of LNG and 9.2 million cubic meters of oil products.