Data

Every dataset here is public and free, with no login and no paid access. Where a source would normally require accepting terms or running a manual download, I kept a small table in the repo instead. The notes below say what to replace if you want to extend the project.

Base geography

Country shapes and coastlines come from Natural Earth, loaded through the rnaturalearth package. Natural Earth is in the public domain. The package ships the data, so there is nothing to download by hand.

Energy infrastructure

The infrastructure layer is a small table of the region’s LNG import terminals, data/processed/lng_terminals.csv. It holds the name, country, location, annual import capacity (in billion cubic metres, or bcm), status, and a source note for each terminal. You can sort or search it here:

Download this table as a CSV

The capacities are taken from operator reporting and the Global Energy Monitor terminal tracker, current as of 2024 to 2025. The source column in the table names the operator behind each figure. Two points I would flag:

  • Capacities move, and a headline figure is often the planned one. Świnoujście reached 8.3 bcm only in January 2025, once its third tank came online. Mukran is frequently quoted at 13.5 bcm, but that assumes two FSRUs (the moored ships that store and re-gasify LNG). Deutsche ReGas ended the charter on the second unit, so the terminal runs on one ship, the Neptune, and is counted here at about 6 bcm. Taking the 13.5 figure at face value would roughly double Germany’s seaborne supply on paper.
  • The Paldiski jetty in Estonia is deliberately left out. It is shelved, and its capacity figure refers to the same ship (the Exemplar) that now operates at Inkoo, so including both would count one vessel twice.

To extend the project, EMODnet Human Activities and OpenStreetMap (via the osmdata package) are the route to add the pipelines and cables as mapped routes, and the full set of capacities can be reconciled against the Global Energy Monitor tracker.

Transit corridors

The corridor map on the Analysis page uses a small table, data/processed/transit_lines.csv, listing the main subsea pipelines and cables by their landing points and status. They are drawn as schematic straight lines, not surveyed routes. The aim is to show which corridors exist and which have been disrupted, not their exact path. Positions and dates come from operator and press reporting. To map the true routes, add the actual route lines from EMODnet Human Activities or OpenStreetMap.

Proximity reference

Instead of a maritime boundary line, the proximity measure uses distance to the nearest Russian territory. That means the mainland near the Gulf of Finland plus the Kaliningrad exclave, taken from Natural Earth. It is reproducible from a public package, and it is easy to read: how far each terminal is from Russian soil.

Dependence

The dependence layer uses gas import dependency from Eurostat (indicator nrg_ind_id, natural gas, 2023), held in data/processed/import_dependence.csv. The figure is the share of gas demand met by net imports. Values above 100% reflect stock draws or re-exports in that year, and Denmark is low because of its own North Sea production. scripts/03_eurostat.R reproduces the pull.

Download this table as a CSV

The table above is committed 2023 data. For comparison, the figure below is pulled live from the Eurostat API in your browser when this page loads:

Checking Eurostat for the latest EU-wide figure…

Gas demand

To judge whether the terminals are large enough, the analysis compares their capacity with what each country actually burns. That demand figure is inland gas consumption from Eurostat (indicator nrg_cb_gas, natural gas, 2023), held in data/processed/gas_demand.csv and converted from million cubic metres to bcm so it sits on the same scale as terminal capacity. scripts/03_eurostat.R pulls it alongside the dependency figures.

2023 demand was itself depressed by high prices and mild weather across much of Europe, so coverage against a colder, higher-demand year would look less comfortable.

Download the demand figures as a CSV

Russian pipeline imports

The before and after comparison uses imports of natural gas from Russia by pipeline, from Eurostat (indicator nrg_ti_gas, partner Russia, natural gas), for 2021 and 2023, held in data/processed/russian_imports.csv and converted to bcm. 2021 is used as the last full year before the invasion.

These are recorded imports, not pipeline capacity. I think that is the fairer comparison. Capacity figures for pipelines like Nord Stream describe what could have flowed rather than what these particular countries actually took.

Download the import figures as a CSV

Why there is no conflict event layer

I framed this as exposure and structural dependence rather than active conflict, because there is no battlefield on the Baltic seabed. ACLED is left out on purpose: it now requires registration, which would break the public data rule. If a later version needs conflict events, UCDP GED is the public, no-login substitute.

How the data is prepared

The steps that turn the raw tables and map data into the layers behind the maps live in scripts/01_clean.R. The Analysis page repeats them when it builds:

  • tidy up the columns,
  • put everything on a map projection suited to Europe, so distances come out in kilometres rather than degrees,
  • trim the map to the Baltic study area,
  • keep the capacity and country information attached to each terminal.

Citations

  • Natural Earth. Free vector and raster map data, 1:50m cultural vectors. https://www.naturalearthdata.com (accessed June 2026).
  • Eurostat. Energy import dependency by products, indicator nrg_ind_id, natural gas, 2023. https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat (accessed June 2026).
  • Eurostat. Supply, transformation and consumption of gas, indicator nrg_cb_gas, inland consumption, natural gas, 2023. https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat (accessed August 2026).
  • Eurostat. Imports of natural gas by partner country, indicator nrg_ti_gas, partner Russia, 2021 and 2023. https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat (accessed August 2026).
  • Global Energy Monitor. Global LNG Terminal Tracker. https://globalenergymonitor.org (accessed June 2026).
  • Operator figures for capacity and status: Gaz-System, Deutsche ReGas, Gasgrid Finland, KN Energies, and Hamina LNG (2024 to 2025 reporting).

If you add pipelines or cables later: EMODnet Human Activities (https://emodnet.ec.europa.eu/en/human-activities) and OpenStreetMap.