LNG Supplies From The United States

In 2015 several of the Eastern European countries will face a dilemma whether they should prolong their long-term contracts with Russia’s Gazprom, Financial Times reports.

Ongoing crisis in Ukraine has provoked haphazard statements from the Obama’s administration regarding their intentions to open up some of the vast reserves of the natural gas. In case this will happen, Eastern European countries will demand lower prices from Gazprom in order to continue long-term collaborations. For example, government officials from Hungary, Lithuania and Estonia have recently confirmed that they are ready to use alternative gas suppliers, in case Gazprom will dismiss their bargaining requests.

However, at this point ambitions of these countries have not been matched by the certain commitment from the United States to become a major supplier of the shale gas to the European continent. Hence, there is an obvious pressure upon Hungary, Lithuania, Estonia and several other countries because currently they are almost hundred percent dependent on the Russian gas. According to the American legislation system, exporters of the natural gas are not able to have a free trade with any countries that US has not signed a fixed trade deal. Based on the current rules, exporters need a government permit in order to supply LNG to the European continent.