European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said that the new agreement between the EU and the United States on the possibilities of increasing the supply of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Europe will not be able to replace Russian gas. Today, the European Union is almost completely dependent on external gas purchases. Last year, the main supplier was Russia, which provided about 45% of EU imports of blue fuel. By mid-May, the European Commission plans to present a plan to eliminate Europe's dependence on Russian energy carriers – gas, oil and coal – by 2027. The agreement with the United States, according to Leyen, is another step towards reducing and eventually moving away from dependence on Russian gas. At the same time, the EC recognized that the US contribution will help replace a significant, but not all, part of Russian gas. Recall that last Friday, the European Commission and the United States announced the creation of a joint working group aimed at reducing Europe's dependence on energy resources from Russia. The goals of this group will be to diversify LNG supplies and reduce the need for natural gas. In total, over the entire period of supplies from the United States (since April 2016), the European Union has imported 64 billion cubic meters of liquefied natural gas from the States. Last year, the volume of LNG purchases in the United States became the maximum – more than 22 billion cubic meters. In January 2022, imports of this fuel reached a record monthly value of 4.4 billion cubic meters.
