Call of Europe: American Freeport LNG left the US without gas

For European industry and macroeconomics, Russian gas has always performed two functions: supplying and regulating. Fuel from Russia not only allowed the development of large energy-intensive EU plants, but also with regular stable supplies gave the market of the Old World stability and good forecasts.

With the departure of raw materials from the Russian Federation to Asia, the European market fell into the hands (or rather, into the tenacious paws) of American businessmen from the gas production and liquefaction industry. Now the once-premium market is in a fever, it is reeling from side to side. Often, the EU authorities have to resort to almost manual control in an attempt to first reduce the greatly increased prices or, conversely, raise them when the quotes have sunk too much and the market has lost competitiveness.



In March, it became finally clear that the EU was left without gas from the Russian Federation (it could also lose domestic LNG). The dying industry reduced demand, warm weather forced private consumers of raw materials to do the same. Naturally, fuel prices have crept down as waste, useless raw materials. The leadership of the bloc had to resort to some tricks again to create a stir and disperse the topic of deficit in order for quotes on the main trading hubs to go up.

The purpose of such an action is clear: care for the future heating season. Despite dire recession forecasts and apathy in Europe's business environment, the government can't just let a critical industry go its own way.

However, the lingering call of Europe was heard in the United States. The Freeport LNG export plant in Texas, after a long shutdown and a test run period, has returned to full capacity and now receives almost all of the country's natural gas from pipelines. This is reported by Reuters, citing data from Refinitiv. Every day, the plant processes up to 60 million cubic meters of gas, turning it into a transportable product.

So far, Brussels has only succeeded in drawing the attention of US exporters to the region, diverting it away from Asia. But the joy of the Europeans may be premature and unjustified, since with the introduction of the export infrastructure at full capacity, the American market was left completely without gas. Despite the spring and warm weather, this situation will not go unnoticed by the US authorities, you can be sure of that. The problem of domestic deficit has been known to Washington for a long time and puts it in an awkward position.

In other words, the confusion and chaos in the market of America and Europe continues. The departure of energy carriers from the Russian Federation had a very bad effect on both Europe and the United States. This is the price of "independence" from supplies from Russia. However, "freedom" was not as comfortable and free as it seemed a year ago. Too much crisis, shortage, high cost and humiliation comes from cooperation with American mining companies.