Portugal has made plans to buy more of Nigeria’s liquefied natural gas due to low supplies from Russia according to the Environment Minister, Maria da Graca Carvalho.

Carvalho stated on Tuesday that Portugal imported 49,141 gigawatt-hours of natural gas in 2024 which accounts for about 96 per cent in LNG energy use in the country.

Nigeria accounts for about 51 per cent of the supply while Russia supplied only 4.4 per cent to Portugal as against a total import of LNG from Russia in 2021 which was pegged at 15 per cent according to the minister.

The Russia-Ukraine War which started in 2022 accounts for the low supply from Russia as the European Union sanctioned Russia oil and gas.

The minister who was present at the World Economic Forum explained to a panel about this development.

She said, “Portugal is now practically independent of Russian gas but we want to reduce this figure further by importing more gas from Nigeria and the United States.’’

The emergence of Donald Trump as the President of the United States of America has seen speculations on the rise about the high tariff which the US LNG would cost, therefore most EU countries dependent on Russian gas have started to search for alternative markets of which Nigeria comes up as a viable source.

Carvalho, while speaking to the panel at WEF, urged EU member states to seek energy independence for security reasons.

She stated that Portugal based in the Iberian Peninsula is still an “energy island.

Russia’s energy company, Gazprom supplies most of Europe’s LNG and in the cases of conflicts with other European states like during the Georgian War in 2008 and the present Ukraine War, Putin has always been accused of using the LNG gas pipeline as a political tool. The gas is used to power electricity in most of Europe, especially Western Europe.