European companies will continue to buy US LNG despite concerns that the EU’s methane and sustainability regulations would stem the flow of cargoes across the Atlantic, oil and gas executives and policy experts say.

“The reality is that Europe is becoming quite dependent on US LNG,” Anne-Sophie Corbeau, a global research scholar at the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, told Energy Intelligence this week.

“Some of that is due to contracts being signed by European companies which need the LNG in Europe, the rest because LNG is sold by aggregators, and it makes more sense for them to send it to Europe than to Asia.”

The industry is on tenterhooks waiting for European leaders agree on a to-be-determined methane intensity limit that will apply to gas volumes entering the EU. The rule extends to all producers, exporters and importers wanting to sell gas into the region, with importers required starting this year to report annual methane emissions data — including from countries and companies exporting to the EU. It includes hefty fines for noncompliance.

The rule has proved controversial among US gas and LNG companies who fear it, and the Climate, Sustainability and Due Diligence Directive, could limit their exposure to the bloc. The EU imported 56% of the total US LNG exports year to date and represented a 53% share in the full-year 2024, according to data from commodity analytics firm Kpler.

‘It’s Complicated’

“I would argue methane emissions management is the right thing to do, and the US has lots of low methane-intensity gas, so it’s a business opportunity,” Axel Scheuer, founder and director of Energy & Climate Policy Advisory Europe, told the Americas LNG Summit in Lake Charles, Louisiana, last week.

“One can argue that the US can sell low-methane intensity gas to Europe. It doesn’t need to be a threat, though a lot of talk has been about the threat and the complications. Yes, it’s complicated, but industry can come up with a compliance solution.”

There continues to be a business case to buy US LNG volumes, which are destination-flexible and relatively cheap to purchase, officials told the forum. The ample supply of US gas also ensures a steady stream of energy to Europe and provides an alternative to Russian supplies, which are set to be phased out by 2027.

US Exporters ‘Not Stupid’

While the EU’s methane directive may be seen as too strict, fears are said to be mounting that a move by the Trump administration to scrap a greenhouse gas reporting rule, data from which producers use to prove their emissions are declining and capture key carbon capture tax credits.

“US LNG exporters are not stupid; they know that down the road that emission problem may come back to bite them,” Corbeau said. “The key is, of course, upstream methane emissions: Some producers do care about methane emissions and try to show that their gas has low methane emissions, and others don’t care at all.”

Upstream US gas companies have made strides in emissions mitigation in recent years in an effort to make their product more appealing to overseas buyers. One expert said that undoing the rule would undermine the progress that has been made.

“One of the things that happens when we roll back regulations, despite the fact that our operators are very good, is that we don’t really get credit for it,” said Samantha Gross, director of the Energy Security and Climate Initiative at the Brookings Institution. “We’re viewed negatively in the marketplace by folks in other countries, particularly in Europe, in a way that we actually don’t deserve.”

‘The Solution Will Be There’

Marcel Steinbach, senior vice president at German trader SEFE Securing Energy for Europe, expressed confidence that industry executives and policymakers will reach a workable solution.

“I can promise you … we [Europe] will not reject a cargo for methane emissions,” Steinbach told attendees at the conference. “There’s going to be different ways to actually handle that. But I think we won’t even have to think about it, because the solution will be there.”

On the sidelines of the conference, Steinbach told Energy Intelligence the German state-backed firm would seek more LNG volumes from the US.

It already has long-term agreements in place to buy LNG from Venture Global’s CP2 LNG and Energy Transfer’s Lake Charles LNG in Louisiana as well as the floating Delfin LNG project in the Gulf of Mexico.

“I think it’s really important that, even though it’s a European regulation, we work very closely with our US suppliers,” he said. “So it’s a partnership thing, and that, I think, is something that makes me really, really confident that we’re going to get it solved.”