The European Union announced on Monday that the 27-member bloc wants to get rid of Russian energy supply by the year 2027 due to Russia's war in Ukraine. "We aim to be completely independent of Russian fossil fuels by 2027 and we believe it is possible to reduce our demands within a year," Tim Mcphie, EU Spokesperson for Energy, told a news conference in Brussels.
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"This is the objective that we have set which has been endorsed by EU leaders during their meeting in Brussels last week," he noted.
The European Commission intends to present its Repower EU plan by end of May which aims to make Europe independent from Russian fossil fuels, starting with gas.
The EU imports around 40 percent of its gas needs from Russia.
US President Joe Biden during a visit to Brussels last week committed to provide the European Union with, 15 billion cubic meters of LNG this year.
The US and Europe will ensure stable demand and supply for additional, at least, 50 billion cubic meters of US LNG until 2030, he announced.
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The United States will work to supply 15 billion cubic metres of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to the European Union this year to help it wean off Russian energy supplies, the transatlantic partners said on Friday. The EU is aiming to cut its dependency on Russian gas by two-thirds this year and end all Russian fossil fuel imports by 2027 due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Russia supplies around 40% of Europe's gas needs.
Concerns over security of supply were reinforced this week after Russia ordered the switch of gas contract payments to roubles, raising the risk of a supply squeeze and even higher prices.
Russia warned the West on Friday that billing in roubles for billions of dollars of natural gas exports to Europe could be just days away and ordered Gazprom to work out how the payments can be made within four days.
Senior U.S. administration officials did not specify what amount or percentage of the extra LNG supply would come from the United States.
U.S. LNG plants are producing at full capacity and analysts say most of any additional U.S. gas sent to Europe would have to come from exports that would have gone elsewhere.
"It normally takes two to three years to build a new production facility, so this deal may be more about the re-direction of existing supplies than new capacity," said Alex Froley, gas and LNG analyst at ICIS.
LNG under contract cannot be easily redirected. Already high European gas prices would have to rise further to attract those cargoes to the 27-nation bloc, analysts said.
Even if the 15 bcm is achievable, "it still falls well short of replacing Russian gas imports, which amounted to around 155 bcm in 2021," analysts at ING Bank said.
