US, EU Launch Effort to Boost LNG Trade, Reduce Dependency on Russia
The U.S. and the EU last week announced a new initiative to reduce European dependency on Russian energy, in a bid to further isolate Moscow amid its war in Ukraine. The two sides will create a task force designed to stop European imports of Russian fossil fuels “as soon as possible,” a senior U.S. administration official said, which includes sourcing alternative energy supplies from third countries, including the U.S.
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America has almost doubled its exports of liquefied natural gas to Europe over the past four months, the official said during a March 25 call with reporters. It has also coordinated a “number of swaps from our partners all over the world, particularly in Asia,” to export LNG to Europe. “So we’re going to continue those efforts throughout 2022,” the official said. “That’s what we’re committing to do.”
The EU hopes to eliminate its energy dependence on Russia before 2030, the official said. “That will involve a lot of commitments by Europe to build the LNG import infrastructure, the distributional needs, the storage needs in order to transport that LNG to places where they have a real need to have gas,” the official said. “The U.S. is trying to do our part and contribute to that.”
The Energy Department recently permitted “a significant amount of volume of new production capacity,” the official said, part of which will allow for more gas exports to Europe. The administration also greenlighted the construction of new gas export facilities that will “certainly be sufficient” to meet European demand. “There’s a plentiful amount of export capacity looking to come online in the near future,” the official said. “The point here is to replace an unreliable supplier of LNG with a much more reliable and secure partner in the U.S.”
As part of the joint U.S.-EU task force, the U.S. will “review and expeditiously act upon” export applications for LNG shipments to Europe, the European Commission said. The commission will also work with member states to “accelerate their regulatory procedures” for LNG imports and import infrastructure, including onshore facilities and pipelines to support imports “using floating storage regasification unit vessels and fixed LNG import terminals.”
“Our cooperation on the four successive waves of sanctions against Russia has been extraordinary and exceptional,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said, referencing the hundreds of designations levied against Russian banks and oligarchs by the U.S. and Europe (see 2203240045). “Our work on sanctions also shows that when we act together, we are stronger and we really can make a difference.”