HOUSTON – When asked if the past few weeks in transatlantic relations have deterred Europe from purchasing US liquified natural gas, Ditte Juul Jørgensen, the European Commission’s Director-General for Energy, firmly said no, the EU will continue to buy.
That might be because Europe doesn’t have many other options. Since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, Brussels has slowly begun weaning itself off Russian gas, notwithstanding a bit of pushback from the likes of Slovakia and Hungary.
Still, Jørgensen, when highlighting the need to work with the US, told an energy conference in Houston that, “even more in an uncertain world, you need partnerships.” Perhaps, though her later responses were more telling on why Europe is willing to take a verbal beating from officials in Washington as of late — Europe is “not geographically rich” and has been subject to a “weaponisation of energy.”
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US suppliers solve an immediate problem for Europe, as national governments continue to shift away from Russian gas.
In fact, France, the UK and the Netherlands have now become the biggest purchasers of American LNG, and US exporters have rushed to meet the growing demand, opening new facilities in the US Gulf.