The United States strives to meet its natural gas delivery obligations to its European allies. The Biden administration has ruled out a gas export ban, despite falling US crude stockpiles and the threat of a potential deficit in the domestic market.
Declining domestic inventories, record-high inflation, and Biden’s demand to petroleum refiners to produce more gasoline and diesel under the threat of an export ban have fuelled speculation that a natural gas export ban could be on the table. However, the Biden administration concluded that the US should continue gas deliveries to the EU. In March 2022, Joe Biden pledged to deliver an additional 15 billion cubic meters (bcm) of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Europe. Since then, the US has shipped more than 30 bcm of the commodity to the EU.
“US natural gas prices would plummet, but if I were the EU, I would almost consider a ban an act of war. It would really stoke anti-American attitudes and make European countries question the strength of their relationship with the US,” Ed Hirs, an energy economist at the University of Houston said.
