US President Joe Biden’s decision to suspend the approval of new liquefied natural gas projects has become an obstacle to the Ukrainian company’s deal to buy US LNG. This was reported by The Wall Street Journal.
“The good news: Ukraine last week struck a major deal with a U.S. LNG supplier to help Eastern Europe divest from Russian natural gas. The bad news: President Biden is standing in the way of the deal’s success,” the publication said.
According to the newspaper, the Ukrainian company D.Trading has signed an agreement with the US Venture Global to supply LNG from the US to Ukraine and Eastern Europe. Supporting the “energy security” of the region is the goal of this project, the paper said.
However, there is a “big snag”, as it is planned to purchase liquefied gas through the Venture Global CP2 terminal, which is under construction and on which a moratorium was imposed by the Joe Biden administration. According to published information, the restrictions have caused huge political uncertainty over future LNG supplies from the US.
“One would think that the administration would give the green light to any project that would help Europe and the rest of the world break its dependence on Russian energy. Russia still accounts for about 15% of gas supplies to Europe <…> If the Europeans cannot get gas from the US, they will have to turn to Russia,” the report said.
Earlier, the Energy Regulators Interaction Agency warned of the need to continue importing Russian LNG to avoid an energy shock.