Russia now surpasses the U.S. in natural gas supply to Europe
Russia has regained its status as the top exporter of natural gap to Europe, surpassing the United States despite European efforts to decrease dependence on Russian energy due to the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. After the invasion of Ukraine by Russia in February 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin reduced gas supplies to Europe. In response, Europe increased imports of liquified natural gas (LNG) from the U.S. Though the U.S. became the leading supplier in September 2022, covering around 20% of Europe’s gas needs since 2023, recent data shows a shift. Russian gas now accounts for 15% of the gas supply to Europe, slightly more than U.S. contributions, which have dropped to 14%. This shift is attributed to several “one-off factors,” including an outage at a major U.S. natural gas export facility and delayed contracts resulting from the U.S. administration’s halt on new natural gas export licenses. This development occurs despite ongoing European sanctions aimed at curtailing Russia’s energy revenue, which supports its war efforts.
Russia has overtaken the United States as the top exporter of natural gas to Europe despite the continent trying to break its reliance on Russian energy in response to Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Russian President Vladimir Putin cut his country’s supply of gas to Europe following his invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and the continent responded by importing liquified natural gas (LNG) from the U.S.
“The US overtook Russia as a supplier of gas to Europe in September 2022, and has since 2023 accounted for about a fifth of the region’s supply,” The Financial Times reported. “But last month, Russian-piped gas and LNG shipments accounted for 15 per cent of total supply to the EU, UK, Switzerland, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and North Macedonia, according to data from ICIS.”
U.S. shipments of natural gas to Europe have since fallen to 14% of the region’s supply, the report said, which comes despite efforts from several European nations to sanction Russian energy, which would reduce Russia’s ability to continue funding its war through energy sales.
Experts claimed to the newspaper that “one-off factors drove the reversal,” including an outage at a major U.S. natural gas export facility.
However, the outage comes after President Joe Biden halted issuing new licenses for natural gas exporters, which has forced companies to delay signing new contracts with U.S. energy producers, Bloomberg News reported.
Rep. Stephanie Bice (R-OK) responded to the development by telling The Daily Wire in a statement: “The Biden Administration’s decision to pause approvals for new LNG export terminals has once again forced Europe into the pockets of Putin.”
“His decisions not only counter his climate goals, since Russian natural gas is 41% dirtier than American, but harms our domestic producers,” she added. “When it comes to Russia, Biden talks the talk, but his actions are doing nothing but supporting Putin.”
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) also responded to the news during the most recent episode of his “Verdict” podcast this week, saying that Biden and the Democrats “are united in favor of this policy.”
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“They are helping Russia. They are hurting our allies, they are hurting Europe, and they’re hurting jobs in Texas, and hurting jobs in America,” he said, later adding: “Joe Biden and the Democrats have this incoherent view that they hate oil and gas produced in America, which, by the way, produces jobs, raises wages here in the United States, but they seemingly love oil and gas produced by our enemies. They love Russian oil and gas. They love Iranian oil and gas. They love Venezuelan oil and gas.”
“Joe Biden is halting the sale of American natural gas to Europe, which means the Europeans are buying them from Vladimir Putin,” he continued. “The Democrats are literally funding Russia in the war against Ukraine. It is incoherent and it’s indefensible.”
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