Biden administration officials have been talking with Qatar about possibly supplying Europe with liquefied natural gas if a Russian invasion of Ukraine leads to shortages, according to people familiar with the matter.
President Joe Biden plans to ask the Persian Gulf nation’s emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, to visit the White House, possibly as soon as later this month, two of the people said on Friday. The meeting between Biden and the emir has been in the works for some time, a White House official said Friday night.
Some European nations have expressed fears that punishing Russia with harsh sanctions over the Ukraine crisis could wind up damaging their economies and prompt Russian President Vladimir Putin to cut off or scale back gas supplies in the middle of the winter.
Europe gets more than 40% of its natural gas from Russia, and about a third of Russian gas flowing to Europe passes through Ukraine.
Qatar is one of the world’s biggest producers of LNG, with about three-quarters of the fuel sold to energy-poor Asian countries such as Japan and Korea. Qatar provides about 5% of Europe’s natural gas.
The Qatari embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In Europe, shifting to LNG is critical for countries such as Lithuania and Poland that are looking to escape the pipeline politics involved in buying gas from Russia.
U.S. officials want to help ease Europeans’ concerns about how they’ll heat their homes this winter, according to people familiar with the private discussions, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The U.S. has been stepping up pressure on the Europeans to agree on a package of sanctions, showing signs of frustration at the pace of negotiations with and within the European Union despite weeks of talks.
Putin has denied that he plans to invade, but is demanding concessions and security guarantees from NATO that the military alliance says it cannot provide.
Europe’s stockpiles of natural gas are low as the continent grapples with a supply crunch. Moscow’s increased leverage over its neighbors became apparent last winter, an unusually cold and long one, that depleted Europe’s inventories of gas just as its economies were emerging from the pandemic-induced recession. Over the summer, Russian state-controlled Gazprom PJSC began capping flows to the continent, aggravating shortages.
White House National Economic Council Director Brian Deese has said the administration is working with partners to step up fuel supplies to Europe.
“In the very immediate term, the focus is on how we can make sure that European countries have sufficient access to natural gas to get through the winter months, but also to alleviate pressures in the spring,” Deese said Thursday in an interview with Bloomberg Television. “And very specifically, what that means is working with our allies and partners, particularly gas producing countries to understand what additional capacity exists and how we could move and extend that capacity into the region.”
Deese on Thursday said the U.S. itself doesn’t have much to send. “With respect to natural gas, our export capacity, we are at close to maximum export capacity. So what we can principally do is work with allies and try to identify and arrange ways to move more product in other ways.”
Would be amazing. Time to stop buying Russian gas. Soon Europe will be free 🥳
LNG all the way baby.
Better yet just slap a nice pipeline across eastern Syria. Fuck it at this point. If he wants to annex parts of Ukraine because of gas related issues then EU should just literally recognize Eastern Syria and slap a big fat pipeline there.
If he is fucking with EU allies then EU sure has the right to fuck with his allies
Russian gas is ˝cheaper˝ in short term but costs an arm and a leg long term.
Putin also made sure that I will not install gas in the new house I’m building. Thank you Vladimir for making me care about ecology for the first time in my life. I’m picking up solar panels next Monday. Fuck it, southern Europe might not have oil or gas but it sure has plenty of sun.
Not just that but Vlad made sure that next year I sure won’t be buying a petrol powered car. Is there a Nobel prize for ecology? Give it to Vlad because he will convince a lot of people that Russian gas and oil are dangerous both when it comes to ecology and ideology.
Thats great. I actually am surprised on the firm stance of US regarding Ukraine. They are doing the best they can while not involving into a war themselves.
Why is it Biden administration that is talking to Qatar ? Maybe the EU should do the talks ?
I wonder if Russia isn’t going to see this as just anti-Russian American aggression?
On the one hand this could simplify a lot of problems with current US diplomacy. When some US-representative of the trump administration said the silent part out loud and just outright told everyone that there’s no news for any pipelines if they just buy American gas, it seemed like America is caring more about their business interest than anything else (yes I know this is r/Europe and America… isn’t this subs favourite country, but I personally still believe that American politicians had other motives too, not just money). With gas from Qatar there is an alternative that gets rid of the whole idea that America is only doing this for profits, since they’re no longer the provider. In a way they become more believable. And gas is needed especially since NS2 is dead should the current crisis escalate any further.
On the other hand I’m a bit of an idealist and the thought of working with Qatar, an Emirate about whose misconduct in many fields is known a lot, doesn’t make me happy. Any support of states like Qatar, Saudi Arabia and similar slavers is shameful for Europe. But I guess this boat sailed a long time ago, it’s not like we have no friendly relations already.
6500 migrant workers have already died building the Word Cup infrastucture in Qatar. Often their passport have been confiscated and they are forced to work, modern day slavery.
How come Qatar can get away this?
While EU attacks China based on so called human rights which in turn makes everything so much more expensive in EU, especially clothes. USA of course supplies the materials with tenfold profits.
I don’t know how to feel about this.
One one hand, no Russian gas
On the other hand, fuck Qatar
UK already has a deal with Qatar underway, we’ve had increased shipments since September.
What could be interesting is the impact on our hydrogen strategy. The government has signalled it’s intent. 2022 is when ideas behind production and support for the industry with jobs, supply and training should be released. 2026 is the date for the UK to decide if we replace heating by Natural gas for hydrogen or electric.
Edit: current document (more ideas being looked at).
11 comments
Biden administration officials have been talking with Qatar about possibly supplying Europe with liquefied natural gas if a Russian invasion of Ukraine leads to shortages, according to people familiar with the matter.
President Joe Biden plans to ask the Persian Gulf nation’s emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, to visit the White House, possibly as soon as later this month, two of the people said on Friday. The meeting between Biden and the emir has been in the works for some time, a White House official said Friday night.
Some European nations have expressed fears that punishing Russia with harsh sanctions over the Ukraine crisis could wind up damaging their economies and prompt Russian President Vladimir Putin to cut off or scale back gas supplies in the middle of the winter.
Europe gets more than 40% of its natural gas from Russia, and about a third of Russian gas flowing to Europe passes through Ukraine.
Qatar is one of the world’s biggest producers of LNG, with about three-quarters of the fuel sold to energy-poor Asian countries such as Japan and Korea. Qatar provides about 5% of Europe’s natural gas.
The Qatari embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In Europe, shifting to LNG is critical for countries such as Lithuania and Poland that are looking to escape the pipeline politics involved in buying gas from Russia.
U.S. officials want to help ease Europeans’ concerns about how they’ll heat their homes this winter, according to people familiar with the private discussions, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The U.S. has been stepping up pressure on the Europeans to agree on a package of sanctions, showing signs of frustration at the pace of negotiations with and within the European Union despite weeks of talks.
Putin has denied that he plans to invade, but is demanding concessions and security guarantees from NATO that the military alliance says it cannot provide.
Europe’s stockpiles of natural gas are low as the continent grapples with a supply crunch. Moscow’s increased leverage over its neighbors became apparent last winter, an unusually cold and long one, that depleted Europe’s inventories of gas just as its economies were emerging from the pandemic-induced recession. Over the summer, Russian state-controlled Gazprom PJSC began capping flows to the continent, aggravating shortages.
White House National Economic Council Director Brian Deese has said the administration is working with partners to step up fuel supplies to Europe.
“In the very immediate term, the focus is on how we can make sure that European countries have sufficient access to natural gas to get through the winter months, but also to alleviate pressures in the spring,” Deese said Thursday in an interview with Bloomberg Television. “And very specifically, what that means is working with our allies and partners, particularly gas producing countries to understand what additional capacity exists and how we could move and extend that capacity into the region.”
Deese on Thursday said the U.S. itself doesn’t have much to send. “With respect to natural gas, our export capacity, we are at close to maximum export capacity. So what we can principally do is work with allies and try to identify and arrange ways to move more product in other ways.”
Would be amazing. Time to stop buying Russian gas. Soon Europe will be free 🥳
LNG all the way baby.
Better yet just slap a nice pipeline across eastern Syria. Fuck it at this point. If he wants to annex parts of Ukraine because of gas related issues then EU should just literally recognize Eastern Syria and slap a big fat pipeline there.
If he is fucking with EU allies then EU sure has the right to fuck with his allies
Russian gas is ˝cheaper˝ in short term but costs an arm and a leg long term.
Putin also made sure that I will not install gas in the new house I’m building. Thank you Vladimir for making me care about ecology for the first time in my life. I’m picking up solar panels next Monday. Fuck it, southern Europe might not have oil or gas but it sure has plenty of sun.
Not just that but Vlad made sure that next year I sure won’t be buying a petrol powered car. Is there a Nobel prize for ecology? Give it to Vlad because he will convince a lot of people that Russian gas and oil are dangerous both when it comes to ecology and ideology.
Thats great. I actually am surprised on the firm stance of US regarding Ukraine. They are doing the best they can while not involving into a war themselves.
Why is it Biden administration that is talking to Qatar ? Maybe the EU should do the talks ?
I wonder if Russia isn’t going to see this as just anti-Russian American aggression?
On the one hand this could simplify a lot of problems with current US diplomacy. When some US-representative of the trump administration said the silent part out loud and just outright told everyone that there’s no news for any pipelines if they just buy American gas, it seemed like America is caring more about their business interest than anything else (yes I know this is r/Europe and America… isn’t this subs favourite country, but I personally still believe that American politicians had other motives too, not just money). With gas from Qatar there is an alternative that gets rid of the whole idea that America is only doing this for profits, since they’re no longer the provider. In a way they become more believable. And gas is needed especially since NS2 is dead should the current crisis escalate any further.
On the other hand I’m a bit of an idealist and the thought of working with Qatar, an Emirate about whose misconduct in many fields is known a lot, doesn’t make me happy. Any support of states like Qatar, Saudi Arabia and similar slavers is shameful for Europe. But I guess this boat sailed a long time ago, it’s not like we have no friendly relations already.
6500 migrant workers have already died building the Word Cup infrastucture in Qatar. Often their passport have been confiscated and they are forced to work, modern day slavery.
How come Qatar can get away this?
While EU attacks China based on so called human rights which in turn makes everything so much more expensive in EU, especially clothes. USA of course supplies the materials with tenfold profits.
I don’t know how to feel about this.
One one hand, no Russian gas
On the other hand, fuck Qatar
UK already has a deal with Qatar underway, we’ve had increased shipments since September.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/energy-crisis-qatar-gas-uk-b1983252.html
What could be interesting is the impact on our hydrogen strategy. The government has signalled it’s intent. 2022 is when ideas behind production and support for the industry with jobs, supply and training should be released. 2026 is the date for the UK to decide if we replace heating by Natural gas for hydrogen or electric.
Edit: current document (more ideas being looked at).
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-government-launches-plan-for-a-world-leading-hydrogen-economy
Finally some ethically sourced gas /s