Portugal aims to reduce Russian gas imports, replacing them with American supplies
Illustrative photo: Portugal to reduce LNG imports from Russia (Getty Images)
Portugal plans to reduce its imports of Russian liquefied natural gas, replacing it with supplies from the United States and Nigeria, states Portugal's Environment Minister, Maria da Graca Carvalho, according to Reuters.
"Portugal is now practically independent of Russian gas... but we want to further reduce this figure by importing more gas from Nigeria and the United States," she said during the World Economic Forum in Davos.
Reuters notes that Portugal imported 49,141 GWh of natural gas in 2024, with about 96% of it being LNG. Of this, 51% of LNG supplies came from Nigeria, around 40% from the United States, and about 4.4% from Russia.
In 2021, Russian gas accounted for 15% of LNG imports to Portugal.
Suspension of transit through Ukraine
As of January 1, Ukraine halted the transit of Russian gas. This triggered a strong reaction from Hungary and Slovakia, which, despite Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, continued to sign contracts for the purchase of gas from Russia.
Just yesterday, on January 20, it became known that Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico discussed potential Russian gas supplies via Türkiye with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
For his part, US President Donald Trump, after his inauguration, urged European countries to purchase more gas and oil from the US to avoid new trade tariffs.
