‘Europe serious about getting more US LNG’

An LNG carrier sits docked at the Cheniere Energy terminal in this aerial photograph taken over Sabine Pass, Texas (file). European nations are far behind Mexico and China when it comes to receiving liquefied natural gas from the US, but the region is making its biggest eff ort to date to change that, according to Bloomberg. European Commission trade off icials will travel to Washington on August 20 to follow up on an energy agreement last month between the Commission’s President Jean-Claude Juncker and US President Donald Trump. Europe pledged to import more LNG in a bid to diversify imports, while America is seeking new markets for its expanding LNG production. Russia is currently Europe’s biggest supplier. “The European Union is ready to facilitate more imports of liquefied natural gas from the US and this is already the case as we speak,” Juncker said in a statement yesterday. “The growing exports of US liquefied natural gas, if priced competitively, could play an increasing and strategic role in EU gas supply.” Europe received about 10% of total US exports last year, up from 5% in 2016 after the American shale gas revolution went global with the opening of the Sabine Pass export facility on the country’s Gulf of Mexico coast. Since then, Europe has imported more than 40 LNG cargoes from the US, or 2.8bn cubic metres, the Commission said.