By Kate Abnett and Valerie Volcovici
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The European Union (EU) seeks to facilitate the compliance of American gas imports with its rules on methane emissions, three sources told Reuters to the subject of the subject, against the backdrop of trade war with US President Donald Trump.
According to the EU and Washington, energy could be part of a broader agreement in the context of commercial negotiations aimed at avoiding customs duties promised by Donald Trump against the EU.
The White House tenant has also repeatedly asked that the EU buys more American oil and gas in order to reduce its trade surplus with the United States.
For her part, the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, indicated that the EU could increase its purchases of US liquefied natural gas (LNG), while the Union seeks to abandon Russian gas by 2027.
As part of the options explored to facilitate trade negotiations with the United States, the European Commission is looking for means to make EU rules on the methane more flexible, which could benefit American LNG exporters, sources said.
The objective would be to introduce technical rules allowing American exporters to benefit from “equivalent” conditions to those of Europeans in matters of methane, while avoiding weakening the regulations as a whole, explained the sources, without providing details on how to achieve it.
The approach could however be complicated by Donald Trump’s project to remove American regulations that require local gas producers that they declare their methane emissions.
A spokesperson for the European Commission did not respond to a request for a immediate comment.
First LNG supplier
Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas and the second cause of climate change after carbon dioxide emissions.
Since this year, the EU has required oil and gas importers within Europe which they control and declare methane emissions linked to these imports.
European methane legislation could give American LNG an advantage compared to suppliers whose intensity of emissions is higher, such as Russia and Algeria.
But American exporters have warned that they will find it difficult to comply with the law technically, because the fragmented nature of the country’s gas industry means that they cannot follow methane emissions throughout their value chains. A cargo of LNG can contain fuels from many gas deposits.
From 2027, European legislation will require foreign suppliers to comply with methane rules equivalent to those of the EU to sign new contracts with European buyers.
Last month, the European Commission organized an online meeting with US LNG companies in order to discuss their concerns vis-Ã -vis the law.
The United States is already the leading LNG supplier in the European Union, their deliveries that increased as Europe strives to replace Russian gas following the invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
The United States provided 45% of EU LNG imports last year, i.e. 16.5% of total units of the gas in terms of broad sense.
(Kate Abnett report in Brussels and Valerie Volcovici in Washington DC; Kate Entringer)
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