LIVE UPDATES
(Reuter/NAN)- Portugal has announced its intention to boost its liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports from the United States and Nigeria in an effort to reduce its reliance on diminishing supplies from Russia.
Environment Minister, Maria da Graca Carvalho announced on Tuesday that Portugal imported 49,141 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of natural gas in 2024, with approximately 96 percent being LNG.
According to the minister, data from the electricity and gas grid operator REN indicates that Nigeria supplied 51 percent of these LNG shipments, while around 40 percent came from the United States, and about 4.4 percent from Russia. In 2021, Russia represented 15 percent of Portugal’s LNG supply.
Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the European Union has enacted targeted sanctions on Russian oil and gas transported via pipelines. However, these sanctions have not halted the import of LNG delivered by ship to Europe.
Graca Carvalho stated during a panel at the World Economic Forum in Davos, as reported by the economic website ECO, that “Portugal is now nearly independent of Russian gas, but we aim to further decrease this dependency by increasing imports from Nigeria and the United States.”
President Donald Trump has warned the European Union of potential tariffs if countries do not enhance their purchases of U.S. energy. ECO also reported that the minister called for increased cooperation within the 27-nation European Union to achieve energy independence and security, noting that Iberia remains an “energy island” due to the challenges in establishing interconnections with France.
