Europe To Purchase ‘Vast Amounts’ Of LNG From The US: President Donald Trump

Amidst the fear of a global trade war, United States (US) President Donald Trump has said that the European Union (EU) will be buying ‘vast amounts’ of liquid natural gas (LNG) from the US, according to a report in Bloomberg. Earlier, President Trump in a North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) meeting had highlighted the need to boost the natural gas trade.

In a meeting with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, Trump discussed the issues pertaining to trade between the EU and US. Juncker said that EU will be building more terminals to import LNG from the US.

"The European Union wants to import more liquefied natural gas, LNG, from the United States and they're going to be a very very big buyer. We're going to make it much easier for them, but they're going to be a massive buyer of LNG," Trump is quoted to have said. This comes after the recent discovery of shale gas in the US which has resulted in record supplies of the heating and power-plant fuel.

The two leaders also agreed to expand imports of soybeans and lower industrial tariffs, excluding automobiles. International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates that LNG imports to the EU from the US will increase by 20 per cent by 2040 considering 2016 as the base year.

It is reported that EU has already started buying more LNG from the US, with Spain and Portugal emerging as steady buyers.

In a series of tweets, Trump hailed the meeting with Juncker and also said that nobody had expected the breakthrough with the EU to be achieved so quickly.