Europe will have to rely on US fossil fuels for decades to come as it races to diversify from Russian natural gas and scale up its renewables sector to boost energy security, said Ditte Juul Jørgensen, the EU’s top energy official, Ednews reports citing the Financial Times.
According to her, the EU had “the instruments that we need” to endure another winter energy crisis in the aftermath of the Russia-Ukraine war. These included conservation and more renewable energy.
But she said the bloc’s reliance on exports of US liquefied natural gas would persist.
“We will need some fossil molecules in the system over the coming couple of decades. And in that context, there will be a need for American energy,” said Jørgensen, director-general for energy in the European Commission, in an interview in New York.
The statement is one of the strongest signals from Brussels that EU states will consume US LNG well past the end of the decade in spite of concerns expressed by some politicians and environmental campaigners that it could dent the bloc’s ambitious climate goals.
Note that from December 31, 2021, Azerbaijan's gas transport to Europe through Trans-Adriatic pipeline (TAP) has started.