US Energy Secretary Chris Wright said on Friday that the EU should quit Russian gas earlier than a proposed 2028 deadline, and replace it with American energy.
Speaking at the Centre for European Policy Studies in Brussels, Wright said that accelerating the EU’s proposed Russian fossil fuel ban – which will first tackle short-term contracts before banning existing long-term deals by 2028 – “was discussed” at his meeting with EU Energy Commissioner Dan Jørgensen yesterday.
“Could it be done faster? I think it could,” Wright said, adding that “I think it would be helpful in ending the war in Russia and Ukraine.”
He also said that Russian energy could easily be replaced with US supply.
“We have massively ramped up our gas exporting capacity, and we have also directed a large percentage of US LNG exports to the EU,” Wright said. There would be a “rapidly growing capacity for the US to bring substitute gas to get off Russian gas faster than those deadlines.”
US gas reached a 70% share in EU LNG imports in August, with the country on track to replace Norway as the bloc’s number one supplier.
(vc)
