LONDON: Europe's two biggest suppliers of pipeline gas, Norway's Equinor and Russia's Gazprom, have lost market share for the first time in at least four years amid a tripling in liquefied natural gas imports into the region over the past 10 months.
The share of LNG in gas supplied to western and central Europe increased to 14per cent between October 2018 and August 2019 from 5per cent in the same period of 2017-18. Despite its market share loss, Gazprom's total gas exports to Europe rose as the region imported 9per cent more gas from October to August, compared with the same period in 2017-2018.
In countries with LNG terminals, Russian flows have given some ground to LNG volumes, an LNG market source said.