The European Union cut its imports of Russian gas from more than 150 billion cubic meters in 2021 to 36 billion in 2025, according to the Council of the European Union, relying on supplies from Norway and U.S. liquefied natural gas, as well as lower consumption, to cover a shortfall of more than 114 billion cubic meters four years after the Nord Stream pipeline blasts on September 26, 2022.
The Nord Stream pipelines were not pumping gas to Germany when the blasts occurred: Nord Stream 1 was shut, while Nord Stream 2 had never entered service. The blasts came at the height of Europe’s energy crisis, after Russian flows had begun declining before September 2022 and then fell faster following the war in Ukraine and disputes over sanctions and payments. After its investigation, Danish police concluded that the pipelines had been deliberately sabotaged.
Norway and the United States lead alternative suppliers
Norway became the European Union’s largest supplier in 2025, providing about 89.3 billion cubic meters, equivalent to 30.9% of its imports, followed by the United States with about 75.6 billion, or 26.2%. North Africa supplied 36.7 billion cubic meters, Azerbaijan 11.3 billion and Qatar 10.6 billion, according to Council of the European Union data.
A comparison with 2021 shows that alternative suppliers did not fill the shortfall on their own. While Russian imports fell by more than 114 billion cubic meters, Norwegian supplies increased by about 9.8 billion and U.S. supplies by about 56.7 billion, according to the Council of the European Union’s data series.
Liquefied natural gas was the fastest route for diversifying supplies. The European Commission estimated the EU’s LNG imports at about 131 billion cubic meters in 2025, accounting for 45% of its gas imports under the methodology used in its report. U.S. gas accounted for 58% of the EU’s LNG imports in 2025, according to the European Union Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators, and remained the leading source in the first quarter of 2026 with a 57.4% share, according to Eurostat.
Expanding terminals and redirecting pipeline flows
The European Union expanded its LNG regasification capacity by about 70 billion cubic meters in 2023 and 2024, according to the Council of the European Union. Germany built floating terminals after opening a facility in Wilhelmshaven in December 2022, before adding further capacity in Germany, Poland, Italy and Belgium during 2025.
Gas flows within the continent were redirected through new infrastructure, including the Baltic Pipe, which opened in September 2022 and links Poland via Denmark to Norway’s gas network, with a capacity of 10 billion cubic meters a year, according to Norway’s Ministry of Energy. The Greece-Bulgaria interconnector also enables gas from Azerbaijan and LNG terminals to be transported to southeastern Europe.
Lower consumption puts pressure on industry and households
Lower demand played a key role in closing the gap, with EU gas consumption falling by more than 19% between 2021 and 2024, according to the Council of the European Union. Although consumption rose 2% in 2025 to 339 billion cubic meters, it remained below 2022 levels, according to the European Commission, driven by energy-saving measures and the expansion of other sources for power generation.
The International Energy Agency estimated that European industry’s gas demand fell by about 23% in 2022, as factories cut production or shut down under pressure from high prices, particularly in the chemicals and fertilizer sectors. The contraction helped balance the market but weighed on industrial output.
The cost also extended to households. The average household gas price in the EU, including taxes, rose from 7.8 euros per 100 kilowatt-hours in the second half of 2021 to 11.4 euros in the same period of 2022, according to Eurostat. The price reached 12.28 euros in the second half of 2025, up nearly 57% from the corresponding period before the crisis.
Storage levels and shipping disruptions test the new map
The European Union has not completely ended its reliance on Russian gas. Russia accounted for about 12.5% of its total gas imports in 2025, according to the Council of the European Union, and represented 17.3% of LNG imports alone in the first quarter of 2026, according to Eurostat. A European decision aims to halt Russian LNG imports entirely at the beginning of 2027, followed by pipeline gas in the autumn of the same year, with transition periods for existing contracts.
Preparations to end the remaining volumes coincided with fresh disruption in the LNG market. In its third-quarter 2026 report, the International Energy Agency said disruptions to Gulf shipments through the Strait of Hormuz had tightened global supply and revived competition between European and Asian buyers. Europe’s regasification terminals offer broader purchasing options, but they do not guarantee the availability of additional cargoes when global supply is tight.
EU gas storage facilities were 70.24% full on the morning of September 24, 2026, according to Gas Infrastructure Europe, while the level was about 57% in Germany and 56% in the Netherlands. Lower storage levels make the market more sensitive to cold spells or delayed shipments during the high-demand season.
Four years after the blasts, Europe has succeeded in changing suppliers and transport routes and reducing the role of Russian gas to a small fraction of its previous level. But the shift has come with higher gas costs for households and industry and greater exposure to volatility in the global cargo market.
