Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on April 1, 2026
2 min readLast updated: April 1, 2026
Add as preferred source on GoogleIn Q1 2026, Russia's LNG exports rose nearly 9% year‑on‑year to 8.6 Mt, with European shipments up 17% to 4.8 Mt. Despite sanctions and rhetoric to divert flows, Yamal LNG largely continued serving EU buyers and Arctic LNG 2 contributed modestly.
MOSCOW, April 1 (Reuters) - Russia exported more liquefied natural gas in the first quarter of 2026 than it did a year earlier, with shipments to Europe increasing despite Moscow's push to redirect supply away from the region.
LNG exports rose 8.9% year-on-year to 8.6 million metric tons, preliminary LSEG data showed on Wednesday.
U.S. sanctions against Moscow over the Ukraine conflict have restrained Russian LNG exports, particularly from the Arctic LNG 2 plant, where operations have been hindered owing to difficulty securing buyers.
Supplies from the Arctic LNG 2 plant amounted to around 800,000 tons of LNG in the first three months of the year, helping raise overall Russian LNG deliveries.
In March alone, total Russian exports of LNG rose 13.9% from a year ago to 3.04 million tons.
Data also showed that Russian LNG exports to Europe for the quarter ending March 31 jumped 17% year-on-year to 4.8 million tons. In March, they rose to around 1.7 million tons from 1.33 million tons a year earlier.
The rise in exports to Europe came even as Russian President Vladimir Putin said his country could divert gas away from the region, as the European Union imposed a ban on imports of Russian pipeline gas by late-2027 and new short-term Russian LNG contracts from late-April this year.
In January, EU countries gave their final approval to ban Russian gas imports by late-2027.
Total exports from Novatek's Yamal LNG plant in the January-March period was down 2% year-on-year at 4.8 million tons. All tankers from the plant were dispatched to Europe so far this year, according to the preliminary data.
Asia-oriented Sakhalin-2, controlled by Gazprom, exported 2.8 million tons in the first three months of the year, up from 2.7 million tons during the same period last year.
(Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Diti Pujara)
Russian LNG exports rose by 8.9% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2026, reaching 8.6 million metric tons.
Russian LNG exports to Europe increased by 17% year-on-year to 4.8 million tons in the first quarter of 2026.
U.S. sanctions, especially impacting the Arctic LNG 2 plant, have restrained Russian LNG exports by making it difficult to secure buyers.
Novatek's Yamal LNG plant supplied all its shipments to Europe, while Gazprom's Sakhalin-2 focused on exports to Asia.
The EU plans to ban Russian pipeline gas by late-2027 and prohibit new short-term Russian LNG contracts from late-April 2026.
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