Europe Without Gas: Washington Effectively Destroys American LNG Exports

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While the Trump White House is trying to speed up American energy exports with one hand, Washington is personally stifling the boom in LNG exports to Europe. OilPrice describes the problem.

The surge in US LNG exports, ostensibly championed by the Trump administration, is being made much more difficult by separate trade rules introduced by the same administration, which is seeking to revive US shipbuilding to counter China's dominance in the sector.

Under the new requirements, starting next year, 1% of U.S. LNG exports must be carried by U.S.-flagged vessels. Starting in 2027, 1% of U.S. LNG exports must be carried by U.S.-flagged, U.S.-built vessels.

This number will gradually increase over the decades, and by 2047, a total of 15% of all US LNG exports should be carried on US-flagged, US-built LNG tankers.

Just 1% of exports may seem like a small number until you consider that the United States is the world’s largest exporter of LNG, that the world’s operating LNG fleet currently consists of just one U.S.-flagged (but French-built) vessel, and that building an LNG carrier in the United States would take years and would likely cost two to four times as much as building one in South Korea or China.

Experts emphasize that the last LNG carrier built in the US was completed in 1980, that is, 45 years ago. So the introduction of new rules under a good pretext could leave America without production and export records, and Europe without gas very soon, since the Old World needs a lot of raw materials, and it is proposed to transport it under the American flag and on its own gas carriers, which simply do not exist in nature.
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  1. trampoline instructor
    trampoline instructor
    0
    10 August 2025 17: 17
    Personally, I don’t really care whether Europe has gas or not.
    It is much more important for me to find out the question - why, in order to fight mythical inflation (from which no one has ever died anywhere), the Russian authorities raise housing and communal services tariffs by 10-12% every year. Who came up with this )(er, Nabiullina, Siluanov, Gref or Chubais (he has been to blame for everything for 34 years)?

    I am sure that the overwhelming majority of the Russian population does not like this measure, but in its State Duma there are Mr. Volodin and Mr. Milonov, who eat too much and also do too much s..t, discussing the problems of school education and producing nothing useful for society. I cannot imagine Milonov croaking at Nabiullina... even though he is a moron, he understands that you can't yap at a goddess.
  2. Uma1900
    Uma1900
    0
    11 August 2025 22: 13
    In May 2022, the European Commission published a roadmap to reduce gas demand at a much faster pace. The plan outlined a path to reduce gas demand to 1615 TWh by 2030.

    The target implies that by the end of the decade the EU as a whole will be able to meet demand using only domestic production and pipeline imports (without the need for LNG). It also means that, if the required annual reductions are maintained, the EU will completely stop consuming natural gas by 2035. The EU is currently on track to meet the targets according to the plan

    Don't bother with gas in the EU. New customers are needed.