Gazprom shipped 190 billion cubic meters of natural gas to Europe in 2017—a record high, according to Bloomberg . In 2018, that figure is expected to dip slightly to 180 billion cubic meters, which will still be the second most on record. The higher reliance on Russian gas may come as a surprise, not least because of the ongoing tension between Russia and some European countries on a variety of issues. Russia’s intervention in Ukraine and its annexation of Crimea in 2014 led to a standoff between Russia and the West—but Europe’s imports of Russian gas are up more than 25 percent since then, despite a lot of rhetoric in Brussels about diversification. There has been some progress. U.S. LNG has begun arriving on European shores for the first time, promising to compete with Russian gas. Importing LNG has been a lifeline particularly in some areas that are acutely […]