White House: US will continue to look for ways to increase gas supplies to Europe

WASHINGTON, Aug 26 – PRIME The United States continues to look for ways to strengthen the energy security of European countries in the face of reduced natural gas supplies from Russia, there is “additional work” in this direction, White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said on Friday.

“We have already made progress on this issue – since March, natural gas supplies to Europe have increased by 84% compared to 2021. At the same time, the share of American supplies has tripled. In fact, gas supplies to Europe have increased by 20 billion cubic meters since March compared to the previous year, which already exceeds the volumes promised by President Biden,” Jean-Pierre said at a regular briefing.

At the same time, according to her, Washington will have to do “additional work” in this direction, and the US will continue to look for ways to increase LNG supplies to Europe, while simultaneously seeking to reduce the region’s dependence on Russian gas imports.

At the same time, Jean-Pierre did not agree with the forecast of a number of experts that the approaching winter and the shortage of gas in the storage facilities of European countries could lead to a split in the unity of Western countries.

“We are confident that this alliance, this partnership will continue to exist. We also intend to provide our partners in Ukraine with the necessary means to continue the struggle for its sovereignty,” the representative of the American administration added.

In early March, gas prices in Europe, due to fears of a ban on the import of Russian energy resources, updated their historical highs for four days in a row. The price record of $3,892 per thousand cubic meters was reached on March 7.

The latest rise in prices on European gas markets is due to the uncertainty regarding gas supplies. A week ago, Gazprom announced that Nord Stream, due to scheduled maintenance of the only working gas pumping unit at the Portovaya compressor station, will stop for three days, from August 31 to September 2. Futures contracts for the supply of gas in September (under TTF) after this news jumped by almost 8%, above $2,700 per thousand cubic meters, and the day before they overcame the mark of $3,300.