The gas deal was presented on Friday by US President Joe Biden and EU leader Ursula von der Leyen in Brussels. In the longer term, the US wants to increase the supply of LNG to about 50 billion cubic meters per year. Biden also announced that he would like to help supply heat pumps and hydrogen, among other things.
Europe consumes more than 400 billion cubic meters of gas annually and imports 350 billion, of which 45 percent from Russia. Europe wants to cut its dependence on Russian gas by two-thirds this year, and then phase it out completely. A total of 50 billion m3 of gas will then be replaced.
Objections
There may be practical objections to the gas deal: LNG capacity in European ports is already being used almost to the maximum and most gas tankers have already been booked.
The Americans also want something in return for their help: they want a deal with the EU on data exchange. Now the data of Europeans may not just be stored in the US. Washington has wanted to close a deal for years, but an earlier agreement ran into problems due to a ruling by the European court. The privacy of Europeans would not be sufficiently protected in the US.
On Friday, the leaders of EU member states will discuss sky-high energy prices on the second day of their summit in Brussels. Southern Europe would like to set a ceiling on the gas price, but Germany and the Netherlands, among others, think this is unwise. There are fears that gas suppliers will avoid the EU.