"The supply of LNG during the first six months of 2024 came from three sources, namely the USA (13 LNG tankers), Nigeria (11 LNG tankers) and Russia (1 LNG tanker)", reported the Energy Services Regulatory Authority (ERSE), in the Bulletin on the Use of Gas Infrastructures.

Although the Sines LNG terminal received mostly LNG tankers from the USA, Nigeria was the largest supplier to Portugal during that period, accounting for 49.2% of total imports, with US gas accounting for 45.9%.

In May, Expresso reported that Portugal had once again received a shipment of liquefied natural gas from Russia, after more than six months without any imports of Russian gas, citing data from REN - Redes Energéticas Nacionais and the Sines Port Authority (APS).

The shipment was made by the Boris Davydov, a 299-metre-long LNG tanker flying the Cypriot flag, which left the Russian port of Sabetta (on the Yamal peninsula) and arrived in Sines in the early morning of 4 May, leaving the port the following morning.

The study "The troubled divorce of Russian gas in Europe", published in mid-July, the result of a collaboration between the Francisco Manuel dos Santos Foundation (FFMS) and the US-based Brookings Institution, concluded that Europe's energy dependence on Russia remains, more than two years after the invasion of Ukraine, with regional differences in access to energy and measures.

For the authors, Samantha Gross and Constanze Stelzenmüller, "Europe remains, for now, largely dependent on imported gas, having limited itself to diversifying its suppliers and increasing its relative dependence on LNG, which is more expensive".

The study states that Europe's response, after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, was rapid "and unimaginable before the conflict", but hides regional differences in access to energy and in the measures taken, which will make a unified political response difficult in the future.

Furthermore, the authors point out that the reduction in demand and substitution by LNG has represented serious losses for energy-intensive industries, controversial subsidies, protectionist policies and the increase in political tensions between European countries.

"This is, therefore, an incomplete trajectory and exposed to future risks, such as the continued blackmail against European countries that continue to import Russian gas, the end of the Ukrainian gas circulation agreement, a possible Trump victory in the US presidential elections in November, or the high volatility that is typical of the LNG market", the analysis points out.

Before the war in Ukraine, more than 40% of the natural gas imported by Europe came from Russia, its largest single supplier, with some European countries depending on Russia for more than 80% of their gas supply, with Germany being the largest customer of Russian gas in terms of volume, importing almost twice the volume of Italy, the second largest.

In 2023, Europe would still import 14.8% of its total gas supply globally from Russia, with 8.7% arriving via pipelines and 6.1% in the form of LNG.