South Korea's imports of Russian liquefied natural gas in September were the highest since November 2021.
Russia's state-run TASS news agency reported on the 16th, citing Korea Customs Service data, that South Korea's total LNG imports in September reached 3.56 million tons, worth $3 billion (about 4 trillion won).
Australia was the largest supplier at 1.33 million tons, followed by the United States at 436,000 tons and Canada at 426,000 tons. TASS said South Korea also imported 326,000 tons of LNG worth $250 million (about 333.1 billion won) from Russia, the largest volume since November 2021.
TASS said Qatar, a key LNG supplier to South Korea, halted production in early March in the aftermath of Iranian airstrikes. State-owned QatarEnergy subsequently declared force majeure on supplies, and Qatari gas has not been delivered to South Korea since, the agency said.
Meanwhile, the European Union and the United Kingdom plan to ban all service provision, including shipping and insurance, for Russian LNG starting in January as part of sanctions against Moscow. The two recently decided, however, to grant a sanctions exemption until March 31, 2028, for volumes bound for South Korea and Japan under existing long-term contracts.