Biden, world leaders to announce natural gas plan for Europe: report

Caroline Vakil
The Hill
Thu, 24 Mar 2022 09:57 UTC

© AP/Evan Vucci

US President Joe Biden departs for Poland and Belgium

President Biden and European leaders are expected to announce a plan on Friday for Europe to receive liquified natural gas (LNG) shipments in an effort to reduce reliance on Russia for energy, three U.S. officials familiar with the plan told The Washington Post.

The announcement is expected before Biden leaves for Poland, where he will travel to after meeting with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in Brussels on Friday, the newspaper reported. The paper noted that the details have not been finalized.

The president is also expected to announce a new round of sanctions against Russia while he is in Brussels. Two people familiar with the matter told the newspaper that the sanctions would target the country's defense companies and subsidiaries, members of its parliament and other sectors.

The White House announced on Thursday that the U.S. and its allies would be sanctioning 328 Duma members in addition to sanctioning the Duma itself, 17 board members from the Russian financial institution Sovcombank, 48 Russian state-owned defense enterprises and several others.

A State Department spokesperson referred The Hill to the Department of Energy regarding the expected Friday announcement and pointed to several statements made by Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen regarding the sanctions announcement.

Blinken said in a statement:

"With our partners and allies, the United States aims to strike the heart of Russia's ability to engage in warfare and carry out aggression against other countries, including Ukraine. We will continue to impose costs until Putin ends this unprovoked war against Ukraine. We call on those closest to Putin to cease and publicly condemn this cold-blooded war, which has caused the unconscionable death of hundreds of civilians, including children, and the largest humanitarian catastrophe in Europe since the Second World War."

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan on Wednesday noted there was an expected announcement coming regarding reducing Europe's energy reliance on Russian natural gas. He told reporters:

"A major priority for both the president and his European allies is to reduce the dependence of Europe on Russian gas. Full stop.

"And the practical roadmap for how to do that — what steps have to be taken, what the United States can contribute, what Europe has to do itself — this has been the subject of intense back-and-forth over the course of the past few days and weeks. And we will have more to say on this subject specifically on Friday, particularly with the European Commission and the European Commission president, von der Leyen. So he'll discuss it tomorrow."

The development comes as the U.S. and European nations seek to further isolate Russia economically by hitting its energy sector.

The U.S. earlier this month announced it would ban Russian imports of natural gas, oil and coal.

The Hill has reached out to the Department of Energy and White House National Security Council for comment.

Comment: 'Big Wheels' for Big Deals: Biden and von der Leyen team up on Russian energy punishment:

The European Union and the United States have struck a deal under which the bloc will receive at least 15 billion cubic meters of U.S. liquefied natural gas (LNG) this year in an effort to wean itself off Russian gas imports.

The announcement came as U.S. President Joe Biden and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen unveiled the formation of a task force on March 25 to reduce Europe's reliance on Russian fossil fuels following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Biden said:

"Today we've agreed on a joint game plan for that goal, while accelerating our progress towards a secure, clean energy future. This initiative focuses on two core issues, one helping Europe to reduce its dependency on Russian gas as quickly as possible and secondly, reducing Europe's demand for gas overall."

Ursula von der Leyen added:

"We aim to reduce this dependency on Russian fossil fuels and get rid of it. This can only be achieved through...additional gas supplies, including LNG deliveries. Therefore, the U.S. commitment to provide the European Union with additional at least 15 billion cubic meters of LNG this year is a big step in this direction because this will replace the LNG supply we currently receive from Russia."

Under the deal, both sides will aim to ramp up deliveries to 50 billion cubic meters per year by 2030. The EU consumed an estimated 378 billion cubic meters of gas in 2020, 40 percent of which was supplied by Russia.

The West makes its next move against Russia regarding gold transactions:

G7 leaders have announced they are restricting the Russian Central Bank's use of gold in transactions. Previously, sanctions against Russian elites, the country's Central Bank and President Vladimir Putin did not affect Russia's gold stockpile, which Mr Putin has been accumulating for several years.

Russia holds roughly 130 billion dollars (£99bn) in gold reserves, and the Bank of Russia announced on February 28 that it would resume the purchase of gold on the domestic precious metals market.

White House officials said on Thursday the move will further blunt Russia's ability to use its international reserves to prop up Russia's economy and fund its war against Ukraine.

Meanwhile, the Biden administration announced more sanctions targeting 48 state-owned defence companies, 328 members of the Duma, Russia's lower parliament, and dozens of Russian elites. The Duma as an entity was also named in the new sanctions.

The G7 and the European Union also announced a new effort to share information and coordinate responses to prevent Russia from evading the impact of sanctions that Western nations have levied since the February 24 invasion.