More American and African gas is flowing into Europe instead.

Russia's revenues from gas exports to the European Union (EU) have dropped eightfold, from 21.4 billion euros in March 2022 to 2.7 billion euros in March 2023.

According to a leaked internal document from the European Commission (EC), obtained by the Financial Times, Russian gas deliveries to Europe plummeted by a dramatic 74% from March 2021 to March 2023. 

The share of Russian gas imports into the European Union. Credit: European Commission

This unprecedented decline can be explained with a number of factors, including a sharp decrease in gas prices (-90% since August 2022), larger purchases from alternative energies such as liquefied natural gas and from alternative suppliers such as the United States or Kazakhstan, and energy-saving measures implemented by the EU.

The Commission recommended last year the member countries to reduce gas consumption by 15%, which is expected to translate this year in saving 60 billion cubic meters of gas.

While Russian gas deliveries in Europe have come to a record low, US refineries and African producers saw a chance to boost their presence.

Russia's share of the market was around 50% until the second half of 2021, the European Commission said. Since then, the share of Russian gas started to decline rapidly and the market shares of other suppliers started to grow. This process sped up in 2022 in particular. Since June 2022, Russia’s share of EU gas imports is below 20%. In November, it was 12.9%. 

Between January and November 2022, Russia (pipeline gas + LNG import) stood for less than a quarter of EU gas import. Another quarter came from Norway, 11.6% from Algeria. LNG import (excluding Russia - mainly from US, Qatar and Nigeria) stood for 25.7%.