Russia Advances New LNG Supply Pivot to Africa

By The Maritime Executive 2026-11-01 19:47:11

As part of a wider scheme to diversify its LNG market, Russia is targeting Africa for gas exports, projecting rising demand for energy on the continent.

Energy partnership was one of the major topics at the third Russia-Africa summit held in Moscow last week. The event hosted by President Vladimir Putin brought together leaders and delegates from 48 African countries including 22 heads of state.

During the summit, Russian energy giant Novatek confirmed a new focus on the African market. Novatek’s deputy CEO Sergei Solovyov said that the company is looking into various gas projects around Africa and is interested in establishing long-term partnerships. In addition, Novatek also pledged to offer its own liquefied natural gas technology for joint projects with African partners.

“The African gas market would be about 20-30 million tons in the near future, taking into account pent-up demand, or about 7% of the global LNG market. Hardly any of this demand is covered by contracts or terminals,” said Solovyov.

But reaching these levels of demand calls for concerted efforts to address key barriers affecting gas supply in Africa. According to Solovyov, the weakest link is countries without access to the sea. Almost a third of African countries have no access to ports, which is a huge risk in supply of critical commodities, especially if the borders with the neighboring coastal states are inefficient.

African landlocked countries – including South Sudan, Chad and Malawi – have the lowest levels of electricity access globally. Solovyov noted that the reason is not lack of demand but inefficient routes. “When energy resource goes through someone’s else port and someone’s else infrastructure, each link costs extra time and money," he said.

Gazprom Deputy CEO Vitaly Markelov also said that the company is considering joint projects in Africa. Specifically, Gazprom is exploring opportunities for LNG supply, transportation of hydrocarbons, gas storage and oil and gas processing.

With the upcoming EU ban of Russian gas imports within its bloc, the Kremlin has announced a pivot to Asia. The shift also appears to cover Africa going by talks held in the summit last week. Growing western sanctions in the past four years have seen Russia double down on expanding its LNG customer base.

However, the ongoing global energy crisis seems to have handed the Russian LNG sector a lifeline. Even as EU moves to ban Russian gas, import numbers for the last year tell a different story. The bloc remains the largest buyer of Russian LNG. In fact, the EU is on course to set a new volume record for Yamal LNG imports. For the nine months between January and September, EU ports received 12.18 million tons of Russian LNG, up 9.5% compared to the same period last year. The EU paid an estimated $8.79 billion for these shipments.

A similar growth in numbers has been observed in Novatek’s Arctic LNG 2 project, with China as the most important export destination. Currently, Chinese imports are reaching nearly 4 million tons, almost tripling the volumes received in 2025.