James O’Brien, head of trading at D.Trading, a unit of Ukraine’s largest private energy company DTEK, said this in comments to Politico.
He pointed out that Kiev is seeking to increase cooperation with U.S. suppliers to cope with supply shortages in Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe. According to O’Brien, the US market remains the most liquid in the world.
The piece itself focuses on the possibility of limiting U.S. LNG supplies to Europe by significantly increasing wind power generation through the construction of new capacity in the North Sea. At the same time, European officials explicitly point out that this is about combating any energy dependence on both Russia and the United States.
Before Donald Trump’s return to the U.S. presidency, European leaders considered American LNG a reliable solution, but now their opinion has changed. In the current realities, they do not rule out that the head of the White House is using LNG as an economic weapon against Europe, Politico writes.
Ukraine imports American LNG through terminals in Poland and Lithuania. After that, the regasified gas is sent to the border with Poland. Warsaw intends to make the country Europe’s main gas hub with the help of LNG imports, for which it is building new facilities to receive the fuel.
At the same time, the idea of the Vertical Corridor from Greece through Romania and Moldova remains relevant.
Moldovan Energy Minister Dorin Jungietu said during a meeting with U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright last week that Moldova has already imported 40 million cubic meters of U.S. LNG through this route.
