MOSCOW: Russia supplied Europe with some 17 million tonnes of liquefied natural gas (LNG) last year, up about 20% from 2021 volumes, Refinitiv Eikon data showed on Tuesday, partially offsetting a steep decline in Russian pipeline gas exports.

Europe has been boosting imports of seaborne LNG – gas transported in liquid form at minus 160 degrees Celsius (minus 256 Fahrenheit) - amid a cut in pipeline gas supplies from Russia due to a deep political crisis over Ukraine.

Russian gas exports to Europe via pipelines plummeted to a post-Soviet low in 2022 as its largest customer cut imports due to the conflict in Ukraine, and a major pipeline was damaged by mysterious blasts.

At the same time, Russia increased its total LNG exports in 2022 by 8.6% to around 33 million tonnes (around 45 billion cubic metres), of which more than half was shipped to Europe, Refinitiv Eikon data showed.

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Russia’s largest LNG producer Novatek provided the bulk of the supplies, having shipped 20.8 million tonnes from the Yamal LNG project in the Arctic and 700,000 tonnes from Kriogaz-Vysotsk on the Baltic Sea, according to Refinitiv Eikon.

The Gazprom-led Sakhalin-2 project in the Pacific part of Russia increased its LNG supplies by 11% to 11.2 million tonnes in 2022.

Gazprom and Novatek have not responded to requests for comments.