US assures Europe: We’ll keep sending you gas, we promise

PARIS — U.S. President Joe Biden’s decision to pause approvals for new liquified natural gas (LNG) projects will not affect deliveries to Europe, a top U.S. energy official told POLITICO.

“It doesn’t impact any of the LNG currently being exported,” U.S. Deputy Energy Secretary David Turk said in an interview after a high-level meeting with French officials in the Paris business district of La Défense.

“It also doesn’t impact any of the current construction going on to export even more LNG,” Turk added, speaking from the 27th floor of a skyscraper where the French government keeps several offices.

The reassurance to anxious European officials comes several months after Biden halted the sign-off of pending or future LNG exports from new gas projects — a surprise move meant to ease concerns from climate-conscious voters ahead of a knife-edge election in November.

The decision rattled European industry, given its increasing reliance on U.S. LNG as the European Union pushes to ditch Russian gas amid Moscow’s grinding war in Ukraine.

U.S. LNG exports to the EU have steadily increased since the start of the war in Ukraine, and currently make up half of the bloc’s LNG supplies — up from about a quarter before the war.

In total, the U.S. exports about 14 billion cubic feet of LNG per day, Turk said. And it has already earmarked up to 48 billion cubic feet for export from future projects — roughly half of its domestic production of natural gas.

“When we point out these numbers, I think there’s some reassurance that there’s the supplies that are necessary,” Turk said.

Since these numbers are spiking, it was “prudent” to review the “climate implications and environmental implications if we authorize even more,” the U.S. energy official argued. “Once that analysis is updated, then we will go back to reviewing the applications as they come in for additional volumes.”

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the EU imported 7.1 billion cubic feet per day from the U.S. in 2023, with France being the EU’s largest LNG importer.

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the EU imported 7.1 billion cubic feet per day from the U.S. in 2023, with France being the EU’s largest LNG importer. | David Hecker/Getty Images

The Biden administration’s decision to pause new approvals aligns with France’s pathway to climate neutrality by 2050, a senior French official told POLITICO.

“It’s consistent with our view,” said Sophie Mourlon, director general for energy and climate at the French Energy Ministry.

“Transitioning away from fossil fuels … we have to pace that, we have to define calendar and meeting points,” the French official added.