Liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplies from the United States for the first time in history outpaced pipeline gas supplies from Russia. This was announced by the head of the International Energy Agency (IEA) Fatih Birol, citing statistics on gas supplies in June 2022.

Fatih Birol also noted that Europe urgently needs to reduce gas consumption in order to survive the coming winter as painlessly as possible.

The volume of gas supplies to Europe from Russia has sharply decreased due to the sanctions conflict, which affected the maintenance of the main gas artery from Russia to Europe, the Nord Stream pipeline. Due to sanctions, the German company Siemens, which maintains gas turbines, cannot return them back to Russia. At the moment, the turbines are stuck in Canada, the company is waiting for the decision of the state authorities.

At the same time, the European side insists that Russia is using this argument solely as a pretext to reduce gas supplies, resorting to blackmail. The Russian side claims that it is not able to increase gas supplies via Nord Stream without turbines from Siemens. Now the gas pipeline operates at only 40% of its capacity. At the same time, Russia has the technical ability to increase supplies through other channels - through Ukraine or Turkey, but deliberately does not do this.

In order to pass the heating season, Europe will have to drastically reduce gas consumption, as well as use alternative energy sources, even those that Europe previously deliberately refused against the background of the “green agenda”. Some countries are already resuming the use of coal as an alternative to gas.