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Belgium May Not Block Russian LNG Imports: Minister

LNG

Belgium may not be able to make use of the upcoming EU law allowing member states to block imports of Russian LNG due to existing contracts, Belgium’s energy minister Tinne Van Der Straeten said.

  • It was "not entirely clear if we can work with that. We are indeed also in Belgium confronted with specific contracts that were signed well before the war and it is now still an open point how to address this," Van Der Straeten said at a meeting of the EU Parliament's energy committee on Monday.
  • Belgium was the EU's third-biggest importer of Russian LNG in Jan-Sep 2023 but around 45% of the Russian LNG imports was reloaded and sent to other countries, according to the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis.
  • LNG exports from Russia to Europe fell by 1.9% year on year to 15.8mn tons in 2023, LSEG data showed.

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