EU’s Von der Leyen Suggests US LNG Could Replace Russian Supply

(Bloomberg) -- European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has an idea for reducing the bloc’s consumption of Russian liquefied natural gas: import more from America.

That’s among the subjects she mentioned during a recent phone call with US President-elect Donald Trump, the head of the European Union’s executive arm said Friday. 

LNG “is one of the topics that we touched upon,” said von der Leyen. “We still get a whole lot of LNG via Russia, from Russia. And why not replace it with American LNG, which is cheaper, and brings down our energy prices.”

The US is already Europe’s biggest provider of LNG, but imports from Russia remain solidly in the second spot. EU officials are looking for ways to curb Moscow’s role as the war in Ukraine continues, even while Russian pipeline gas and LNG are largely outside of the scope of sanctions.

Von der Leyen was careful to point out that the conversation with Trump didn’t delve into too many details on LNG. “That is something where we can get into a discussion,” she said.

This year, western Europe has already bought more LNG from Russia than in all of 2023, according to ship-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg.

While western sanctions have challenged Russia’s newest LNG export plant, Arctic LNG 2, no restrictions apply to shipments from the operational Yamal LNG plant. Shipments are primarily headed for France, Spain and Belgium. In part, that’s because of long-term supply contracts in place. 

©2024 Bloomberg L.P.