Foreign media: U.S. natural gas exports to Europe have soared, but Europe's dependence on Russian fuel is difficult to solve

On January 16, the website of the Spanish newspaper El País published an article titled "America-Russia: A Pulse of High Pressure in the European Gas Chess Game" by Ignacio Farissa and Andrea Ricci. The full text is excerpted below:

Supplying natural gas to Europe is one of the key factors in the crisis between Russia and the West. European countries are highly dependent on Russian fuel, and past facts and current indications are that Moscow is willing to use this tool in a crisis centered on Ukraine, which has exacerbated the situation of unusually high energy prices on European soil. In recent weeks, however, a new factor has popped up that, while it cannot structurally change the situation, does make considerable sense: U.S. LNG exports have soared.

Until just 6 years ago, the United States had not put a cubic meter of natural gas on the international market. But during this time, it has managed to ramp up production and has even overtaken Qatar and Australia to become the world's largest exporter of LNG. Driven by record prices set ahead of Christmas, dozens of LNG carriers from the United States have changed their destinations: fleets that would otherwise be heading to Asia continue to sail to Europe. In December, the number of berths for transport vessels loading U.S. LNG at European ports soared 33 percent from November and 145 percent from the same month in 2020, the data showed.

For Europe, which is hungry for energy and dependent on its ongoingly unstable relations with Russia, the U.S. presence in its gas supply-demand balance is good news.

However, as significant as it is, this trend is not a panacea, especially at a time when tensions are at its most. "If we ask ourselves whether the increase in U.S. LNG exports is enough to solve Europe's woes, the answer is no." This is not a structural solution. Imports from Russia are so large that it is impossible to avoid dependence on this alone. Simone Taglia Pietra, an expert at the Institute for European and Global Economic Research in Brussels, a think tank, said.

In addition, the expert stressed that it must not be forgotten that U.S. exports follow "pure market logic."

"Trump has threatened that the whereabouts of free natural gas do not depend on the U.S. government, it will flow to higher prices," he said. ”

Source: Reference News Network