The European Union bought 97% of the liquefied natural gas produced at Novatek’s Yamal LNG facility over the first quarter of the year, raising certain questions about the pending ban on all Russian gas imports from next year. Despite attempts to secure alternative supply and reduce its purchases of Russian energy altogether, the EU appears to have found it difficult to find that alternative supply at competitive prices, leading to a 17% increase in purchases from Yamal LNG, for a total of 5 million tons, according to data from Kpler cited…