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US is already biggest LNG supplier to EU

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EU buying more US gas set to feature in trade negotiations

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EU could also consider changing methane rules for gas

imports

By Kate Abnett

BRUSSELS, April 8 (Reuters) - The European Union could

consider aggregating its member countries' demand to buy U.S.

liquefied natural gas, as part of negotiations with President

Donald Trump to try to avert a trade war, Lithuania's energy

minister told Reuters on Tuesday.

When EU ministers met on Monday to consider the bloc's

response to Trump's planned 20% tariffs on most EU goods, EU

trade commissioner Maros Sefcovic said LNG could be part of

negotiations.

Also on Monday, Trump said the EU would need to buy U.S.

energy and that could reduce the U.S. trade deficit with the

bloc.

The U.S. is already Europe's largest LNG supplier, providing

45% of EU LNG imports last year.

Zygimantas Vaiciunas said the EU's options to incentivise

purchases of U.S. LNG included "demand aggregation", in which

the European Commission would collate LNG demand from groups of

EU countries or the entire bloc to present a bigger request for

supplies.

"I think that would be one of the potential future talks,

about the demand and the potential managing of the demand in the

regions, or in the entire EU," Vaiciunas said.

The EU does not directly purchase gas, which is done by

companies and traders in commercial contracts. But Brussels has

run a joint gas buying scheme, aimed at increasing the

bargaining power of member states, since 2023.

While individual companies sign the final contracts, the EU

scheme gathers European companies' demand and matches it with

offers from global gas sellers.

U.S. LNG has become more crucial to the EU since Moscow's

invasion of Ukraine, which forced Europe to reduce its

dependence on Russian pipeline gas.

Ukraine is also looking to import large volumes of U.S. gas

this year via terminals in countries including, Germany, Poland

and Lithuania, a senior Ukrainian energy official told Reuters

last month.

Vaiciunas said the EU could also consider amending its

methane emissions rules that some U.S. companies say they will

struggle to comply with.

"There are some new regulations which have some additional

thresholds for U.S. LNG to enter the European market. So this is

one of the potentials that could be changed," Vaiciunas said,

referring to the EU methane law.

He said the European Commission has not started talks with

EU governments on the details of how LNG could factor into trade

negotiations with the U.S.

Starting this year, the EU obliges importers of oil and gas

to report the methane emissions associated with those imports.

Some U.S. LNG exporters have said the fragmented nature of the

country's gas industry means they cannot track emissions along

their value chains, down to the fields that gas is extracted

from.