ENERGY/EU/RUSSIA/TRADE DEALS/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Donald Trump wants Europe to buy more U.S. gas, but Vladimir Putin’s Russia stands in the way. On Wednesday [7-25-18], Mr. Trump and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker dialed down trade tensions with measures that include a preliminary agreement for Europe to buy more liquefied natural gas from the U.S. Surging U.S. LNG exports and Europe’s desire to reduce its dependence on Russian fuel was widely expected to help break Moscow’s dominance on the continent. However, in recent years, Russia has increased its exports to Europe, and U.S. LNG has failed to take any meaningful market share. Russia is the European Union’s top supplier, with around a 35% market share. Russian gas is simply cheaper and U.S. exporters may not actually want to rush to Europe, given their gas fetches a higher price in Asia, driven by surging Chinese demand.”
–Sarah McFarlane, Bojan Pancevski and Georgi Kantchev, “Trump Wants Europe to Buy U.S. Gas—but Russia Is in His Way,” The Wall Street Journal, July 26, 2018 11:34 am