The US and EU have announced a major deal on liquified natural gas [LNG], which is geared toward ending European reliance on Russian energy supplies.
The deal was announced on Friday as US president, Joe Biden, visited the EU Parliament in Brussels.
The US will provide the EU with a minimum 15 billion additional cubic metres of LNG by the end of 2022 as part of the deal, on top of the 22 billion cubic metres it currently supplies the bloc with, according to 2021 statistics.
Under the new US deal, the EU eventually hopes to import around 50 billion cubic metres of American gas per year.
Russia currently provides 40 per cent of the EU’s gas, which amounts to around 216 billion cubic metres according to 2020 statistics from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.
However, the bloc has resolved to significantly reduce its use of Russian energy following Russia's attack on Ukraine.
Speaking in Brussels as the deal was announced, US president Biden and European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, reiterated their joint support for Ukraine as it continues to battle against its aggressor, and talked up the importance of European energy independence.
Biden said: “Putin is using Russia's energy resources to coerce and manipulate its neighbours. He's used the profits to drive his war machine.
“I know that eliminating Russian gas will have costs for Europe, but it's not only the right thing to do from a moral standpoint, it's going to put us on a much stronger strategic footing [in the long-term].”
Von der Leyen said: “We want, as Europeans, to diversify away from Russia towards suppliers that we trust that are friends and that are reliable.”
The targeted 50 billion cubic metres of gas per year coming from the US deal, according to von der Leyen, will amount to a third of the supply that Europe currently imports from Russia.
“So, we are right on track now to diversify away from Russian gas,” von der Leyen explained.
Germany has already suspended permission for the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline from Russia to the continent to commence operations.
By 2030, the EU also plans to save around 170 billion cubic metres of LNG through energy efficiency measures and increased use of renewable energies, on top of the new supplies being imported from the US. All of this in tandem would see its current gas imports from Russia replaced entirely.
The bloc says that energy saving measures in homes could effectively replace 15.5 billion cubic metres of gas over 2022 alone, while increasing wind and solar power could compensate for as much as 20 billion cubic metres of gas.
Although it has set 2030 as a target, the EU is optimistic that it can make the continent independent from Russian energy “well before” then.
Meanwhile, the US has already embargoed any imports of Russian oil and gas, and the UK is to phase out all its Russian oil imports by the end of the year.
Image taken from Wikimedia Commons
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