US-EU Trade Truce To Boost U.S. LNG Exports To Europe

The agreement between the United States and the European Union to work together toward ‘zero tariffs’ is setting the stage for increased U.S. exports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to the EU, U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry said on Thursday at the opening of the second U.S. LNG export facility at Cove Point, Maryland.

“It is a new day and I think a very bright day,” Secretary Perry said. “Our allies, they can count on, no strings attached that U.S. energy will keep flowing their way,” he added, as quoted by Houston Chronicle.

After a meeting with the President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, on Wednesday, U.S. President Donald Trump said that the two agreed “to work together toward zero tariffs, zero non-tariff barriers, and zero subsidies on non-auto industrial goods.”

The parties also agreed to boost energy cooperation.

“The European Union wants to import more liquefied natural gas — LNG — from the United States, and they’re going to be a very, very big buyer. We’re going to make it much easier for them, but they’re going to be a massive buyer of LNG, so they’ll be able to diversify their energy supply, which they want very much to do. And we have plenty of it,” President Trump said.

The completion of the Cove Point LNG export expansion project makes it the second LNG export facility in the continental United States, after Sabine Pass in Louisiana.

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These two facilities now ship U.S. LNG to 30 nations on five continents, with a combined export capacity of 3.6 Bcf/d.

U.S. LNG exports increased from 0.5 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) in 2016 to 1.94 Bcf/d in 2017.

Another four LNG export projects are underway across the U.S.—Elba Island LNG in Georgia, Freeport LNG in Texas, Corpus Christi in Texas, and Cameron LNG in Louisiana.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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