The US will help the EU secure an additional 15 billion cubic metres of liquefied natural gas by year’s end, President Biden and the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, announced in Brussels on Friday, an important step in the bloc’s race to wean itself off Russian fuel imports.
The EU is heavily reliant on energy imports from Russia, including oil, gas, liquefied gas and coal, and that dependence has become a growing problem as the bloc seeks to punish President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia for his monthlong invasion of Ukraine.
The US would like the EU to impose an oil and gas embargo on Russia, but the prospect has been dismissed by several EU leaders, who see it as a financially disastrous step that would hurt Europe more than Russia.
And although the statements mark a significant moment, highlighting the US’s willingness to use its global influence to secure fuel for Europe in a bid to further isolate Putin, the task will not be simple.
The production of liquefied natural gas is limited and spoken for, and the pledge for additional fuel for Europe will have to be filled in increments from various sources. The EU now imports the fuel from the US as well as Russia, Nigeria, Algeria and Qatar. A further escalation of the war, or a shocking move by Russia, such as the use of chemical, biological or nuclear weapons, could leave the EU with little choice but to impose sanctions on Russian energy sales, a development that it is far from prepared for right now.
While the US has been able to ban Russian energy imports as part of a broader set of sanctions against Putin — doing so from a position of strength, because it is a net exporter of energy — the EU has not been able to follow. Instead, it has effectively continued to finance Putin just as it levels other significant sanctions against Russia.
“We want as Europeans to diversify away from Russia, towards suppliers that we trust that are friends and that are reliable,” Von der Leyen said at a joint news briefing with Biden. “Therefore the US commitment to provide the EU with an additional at least 15 billion cubic metres of LNG this year is a big step in this direction, because this will replace the LNG supply we currently receive from Russia.
Russia warning
Russia warned the West on Friday that billing in roubles for billions of dollars of natural gas exports to Europe could be just days away.
The Kremlin on Friday said Putin had ordered Gazprom , the world’s biggest natural gas company, to accept export payments in roubles, and that it had just four days left to work out how.
New York Times News Service and Reuters
