Politico: Europe worries over growing dependence on US gas

Europe is worried about its growing dependence on gas imported from the United States as its relations with Washington grow more strained over the Trump administration’s efforts to take control of strategically important Greenland. Politico reports that US liquefied natural gas (LNG) was meant to offer Europe a secure alternative to Russian gas, imports of which the 27-member bloc has effectively banned in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Europe had hoped it could count on the United States as a reliable partner. By the end of the decade, US gas could account for 40 percent of the EU’s total imports.

The EU’s growing reliance on US LNG supplies “has created a new, potentially highly dangerous geopolitical dependency,” said Ana Maria Jaller-Makarewicz of the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA). “Overreliance on the United States runs counter to EU policy to promote energy security by diversifying sources, reducing consumption and expanding supply from renewable sources,” the analyst warned.

Some EU diplomats fear that the Trump administration could exploit this new European dependence to achieve its own goals, Politico reports. Although other sources of gas are available around the world, outside the US, the risk that the US could cut off Europe’s gas supplies in the event of an invasion of Greenland must be taken into account, an unnamed diplomat said. “Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that,” they added.

European diplomats and politicians are increasingly concerned by remarks from Trump and members of his administration about the United States’ claims to Greenland. The US president calls acquiring the world’s largest island, a semi-autonomous territory of Denmark, essential to the security of the United States and the Arctic. US control of Greenland would plunge transatlantic relations into crisis and could lead to the destruction of NATO, Politico reports. Tensions between the US and Europe rose over the weekend after Trump announced new tariffs on several European countries until a deal on Greenland is reached. They include France, Denmark, Germany and the UK. Brussels has threatened Washington with severe trade retaliation in response.

The United States is the world’s largest LNG exporter, and US LNG accounts for 27 percent of the EU’s total imports of the fuel, according to IEEFA data. In 2021, the year before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the figure was just five percent. Within the EU, France, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands and Belgium import the most US LNG. The UK, which is not an EU member, also imports large volumes.