(Source: LordBebo Telegram channel)
Transcript:
"very important what we have started yesterday, secondly discuss about common interests and there are common interests that we have so uh and then go into negotiations, uh common interests are, for example this is one topic uh that we touched upon I would not say discuss, but we touched upon yesterday it's the whole topic of LNG, we still get a lot of LNG via Russia, from Russia, and why not replace it by American LNG, which is cheaper for us and brings down our energy prices, but it's something where we can get into uh a discussion also what our trade deficit is concerned, so engage um, look at common interest and then negotiate"
Besides the extensive discussion out there (more like a words salad, Kamala style), one crucial statement stands out:
we still get a lot of LNG via Russia, from Russia, and why not replace it by American LNG, which is cheaper for us and brings down our energy prices...
It’s worth noting that she’s subtly referencing LNG, which stands for Liquefied Natural Gas (and not referring to the pipeline natural gas, which is even cheaper). According to this source, LNG accounts for 13% of the EU’s total LNG imports and 5% of its total gas consumption (excluding Russian LNG transshipments to non-EU Member States, 17.25 bcm of Russian LNG entered the EU gas system in 2023).
However, most of the natural gas entering the EU actually arrives via pipelines.
Indeed, with Russian pipeline gas now only entering Europe via the Strandza 2 and Velke Kapusany IPs, Commodity Insights data showed total flows at 25.3 Bcm in 2023 with these reaching 23.6 Bcm over 2024 thus far.
Although pipeline volumes of Russian material are set to grow further to Asia, currently Russia's LNG molecules have continued to find buyers in Europe.
Russian LNG exports in 2024 so far stood at 19.05 million mt, or 314 cargoes, according to Commodity Insights data as of Oct. 23.
Of the total, nearly 68% went to Europe and nearly 27% to Asia.
This compared to the 17.53 million mt exported in 2023 with 69% to Europe and 30% to Asia in 2023, and 17.96 million mt exported in 2022 with 68% delivered to Europe and 31% sent to Asia, over the same period, the data showed.
EU still relies on Russia natural gas source:
Overall, in 2023, Europe still imported 14.8% of its total gas supply from Russia, with 8.7% arriving via pipelines (25.1 billion cubic meters or bcm) and 6.1% as LNG (17.8 bcm).
But is it cheaper to buy American LNG than Russian gas? Common sense would suggest otherwise. If American gas had been cheaper, the EU would have established connections to this source long ago. Russian natural gas, however, was cheaper, forming the backbone of the German economy. Now, without access to this affordable energy, Germany is undergoing de-industrialization at an alarming pace. Germany’s economy is suffering from self-imposed limitations, and electricity prices across Europe are rising as a result:
