Germany doubles purchases of Russian natural gas in March

The biggest importer of Russian natural gas, Germany, doubled year-on-year purchases of the pipeline fuel in March 2021, according to the latest figures revealed by the Federal Customs Service.

Purchases of Russian gas neared 4.5 billion cubic meters, marking a robust growth of 66.3% compared to the same period a year ago. Germany imported 4.6 billion cubic meters of gas in February – a year-on-year increase of 63.3%.

Year-on-year exports to Italy, Gazprom’s second-biggest buyer, dropped 41.5% to some 1.3 billion cubic meters, but exports in March surged 467% compared to the previous month. France imported 1.1 billion cubic meters of gas in March, marking a more than 15% increase compared to March 2020, and a surge of nearly 29.5% month-on-month.

Serbia purchased 245.5 million cubic meters of gas from Russia, recording a year-on-year growth of 138%, while Bulgaria’s imports saw an upsurge of 51.41% to 269.8 million cubic meters. Hungary imported 763.7 million cubic meters – up 31.6% compared to March 2020. Sales to Greece rose 35.9% to 276.1 million cubic meters.

Meanwhile, exports to Turkey surged to 2.628 billion cubic meters from the 394.1 million cubic meters recorded in March 2020, marking a massive growth of 567%.

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