Washington will endeavor to provide the twenty-seven cubic cubic meters of liquefied natural gas this year, as part of this initiative.
Le Monde with AFP
More than a month after the start of the Russian offensive in Ukraine, the United States and the European Union (EU) announced, Friday, March 25, the creation of a working group that will aim to reduce Europe’s dependence on Russian fossil energies.
The United States will strive to provide Europe with 15 billion cubic meters (m 3 ) additional liquefied natural gas (LNG) in 2022, as part of this initiative unveiled By the US President Joe Biden, and the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, according to a statement. At present, the United States provides Europe (EU and the United Kingdom) 66.5 million m 3 of LNG per day.
The ultrapendix of Europeans to Russian gas deliveries is one of the main challenges of this conflict. How to do without about 40% of the gas consumed and 45% of the gas imported into 2021 across the EU? These percentages vary considerably between the twenty-seven, with France being largely below (17% of its gas imports in 2020 are Russian), and Germany well above (more than 50%).
Germany seeks to diversify its supplies
In the future, the EU could replace 30 billion m3 Russians with those of other suppliers: through pipelines (10 billion m 3 ) – for example from Norway or Azerbaijan, the production of the EU being declined – as well as by sea (20 billion M 3 ), the United States and Qatar having made LNG trading a specialty.
At the same time, Germany has announced that it would strongly and quickly reduce its own dependence on Russian energies. “By mid-year [2022], Russian oil imports in Germany should have halved; at the end of the year, we aim for quasi-independence,” said the Ministry of German economy in a statement, adding that, “by autumn, we can become globally independent of Russian coal”.