Washington Working With European States to Increase US Liquefied Gas Exports

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - The United States is working with European states who are interested in increasing imports of US liquefied natural gas (LNG), US Under Secretary of State for Economic Growth, Energy and Environment Jose Fernandez said during a congressional hearing on Wednesday.

“I have met a number of European countries that are looking to expand their imports of US LNG. We're working as well on infrastructure in Europe to try and build the kinds of facilities that will accept LNG export,” Fernandez told the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

The United States has tripled its LNG exports to European states this year alone and is now the largest supplier of LNG to the continent with a 75% share of total LNG inputs, Fernandez noted.

Washington has already been working with partners around the globe “to understand their capacity and willingness to surge natural gas output and allocate these volumes to European buyers,” he said.

Fernandez also said the United States is doing everything it can to wean Europe off Russian gas and oil, and will continue to look for ways to increase energy supplies from both the United States and its allies and partners.

Since the end of last year, countries in Europe have increasingly imported more LNG to compensate for lower pipeline imports from Russia and to fill historically low natural gas storage inventories. LNG imports in the European Union and United Kingdom increased by 63% during the first half of 2022 to an average of 14.8 billion cubic feet per day (bcf/d), according to the Energy Information Administration.