According to the report, the EU imported a good 12.7 billion cubic meters from Russia and 12.3 billion from the United States in the quarter from April to June. Austria and several other countries import a particularly large amount of gas from Russia, with a good 80 percent of the gas coming from there recently.
Compared to the first quarter of 2024, deliveries from Russia across the EU fell slightly, but those from the US fell more sharply. Norway remained the EU’s largest gas supplier with 23.9 cubic meters in the second quarter.
Russia held this position until its invasion of Ukraine in early 2022, after which many EU countries reduced imports from the country, while Austria has so far only managed to do so very hesitantly.
Russia ranks second in supplier list
Across the EU, Russia has risen to second place in the list of suppliers, just ahead of the USA and behind Norway. The target countries were not revealed in the data. According to data from the Federal Statistical Office, Germany no longer imports gas from there.
A German CDU foreign policy expert called for an EU-wide import ban on Russian gas in the newspaper “Welt” (Sunday edition). A representative of the FDP spoke out in favor of a surcharge on the price of Russian imported gas in order to finance aid and arms deliveries to Ukraine.
Exit planned for 2027
All EU countries have agreed to phase out Russian gas by 2027. In December 2023, 98 percent of Austria’s gas imports came from Russia, in May 2024 it was still 90 percent and in June 83 percent.
At the beginning of July, the domestic Green Party-led Energy Ministry set up a commission to examine the gas supply contract between Russia’s Gazprom and the partially state-owned energy company OMV. Individual members will also be given access to the contract, the contents of which are currently only known to OMV itself.