The 12 country border crossings visualized in the graph above were selected because they had the highest gas flows from January 2019 through February 2022. Norway was included with the United Kingdom because there is not a clear border crossing between the two countries like other border crossings. For all other border crossings, the country listed is where the facility resides even though the crossing is technically shared with the neighboring country.
The data is mostly complete; however, there are some obvious discrepancies such as the lack of data for specific crossings from Russia to Ukraine and the missing information for that country after May of 2019. Aside from the missing data, the graph shows that gas flows through Ukraine were some of the highest in Europe. Current flows through Ukraine are unknown, but it is expected the flows are significantly lower considering the recent Russian invasion of that country. Gas flows into and through Germany are also high, which was expected since it is the largest industrial country in the European Union (EU). The Slovak Republic, Austria, Poland, the Czech Republic, and Italy also have relatively high gas flows ranging between 2,000 and 5,000 million m³. All other country border crossings depicted in the chart are generally below 1,000 million m³. Additional insights include seasonal changes and a noticeable drop in gas flows after 2020 in many countries like Austria, the Slovak Republic, and the United Kingdom. It is likely this drop in gas flows was due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, although there may be other ancillary causes. Concurrent with the 2020 decline in gas flows for many countries, gas flows through the Czech Republic increase.
Oil and gas are the main elements of the Russian economy and dominate the country’s exports making these commodities major components of the Russian GDP. The EU (especially Germany) is one of the main purchasers of Russian oil and gas and has invested heavily in this part of the Russian economy. Most foreign direct investment into Russia comes from the EU with European investors owning more than half of the stock in this market. Russia also relies on the EU for infrastructure developments and improvements in their gas trade with projects like NordStream2 (now halted). This economic relationship can be viewed as interdepent where Russia needs Europe’s continued investments and Europe needs Russia’s gas. Interruption of the status quo can send markets into a frenzy, evidenced by recent sanctions imposed on Russia for the invasion of Ukraine and Russia’s intentional disruption of the gas supply like the termination of gas flows to Poland for not paying in rubles. For the time being, Russia and Europe are dependent on one another in terms of the gas trade, which complicates the latter imposing sanctions on the former. Europe cannot impose heavy sanctions on Russia without hurting itself in the process. However, Europe has reduced investments in Russia over the past several years and has made a pledge to decarbonize, thereby reducing dependence on Russian gas. Europe also has stockpiles / reserves and other large natural gas producers like Norway.