About the only thing this Trump bunch is good at is lacing up their shoes and stepping on each other's dicks.
And the Kicker? They put Kimberly Guilfoyle out front on this one.
Greece’s energy minister said U.S.-EU tensions had scared off potential buyers of American LNG.
ATHENS — Washington's ambition to replace Russia as Eastern Europe's dominant gas supplier has hit a surprise hurdle: European buyers, it seems, don't want it.
Two months ago U.S. government officials descended on Athens to declare themselves the big new energy player in the Mediterranean.
New and revamped terminals in Greece would receive shiploads of American liquefied natural gas, which would then be carried up to neighboring countries from Bulgaria to Ukraine by way of the "Vertical Corridor" network of pipes. The aim, they said, was to replace “every last molecule of Russian gas.”
“What we see for the future of Greece and the United States is Greece being an energy hub and showing this energy dominance that both of our countries can experience and work together cooperatively to achieve tremendous outcomes,” U.S. Ambassador Kimberly Guilfoyle said at the time.
But when the Greek government on Monday asked energy companies to bid for access to these gas pipelines, the auctions were a flop. They attracted almost zero interest from energy companies, prompting warnings from analysts that U.S. President Donald Trump's unpredictable trade policy is undermining his own energy export ambitions.
The scale of the flop was striking. Out of nearly 72 gigawatt-hours of pipeline capacity offered to companies across three different entry routes, a minuscule 48 megawatt-hours — less than 0.1 percent of the total on offer — were eventually booked. A similar auction in December was even more of a flop, attracting no bids at all.
Some blamed the embarrassing result on high transport charges and weak gas demand in countries along the corridor. But others, including the Greek government itself, cited deteriorating EU-U.S. relations, which have reached an historic low in recent weeks.
“The auctions did not go well at all, and this was a result of the conflict that existed and still exists [between the EU and the U.S.],” Greek Energy Minister Stavros Papastavrou told local Open TV on Tuesday.
Had the auctions gone well, gas traders would have been seen as confident both that the U.S. would reliably deliver the LNG, and that there was strong demand for the new source of gas in end markets. The poor result suggests companies weren't willing to take that bet.
“There are all of these uncertainties introduced by Trump's position and his relationship with Europe and everybody seems to be sort of holding back to seeing how things develop,” said Charles Ellinas, a senior fellow at the Global Energy Center of the Atlantic Council.
“The initiative that the U.S. pushed via Greece is important to the U.S., but for that to happen, the relationship between the U.S. and Europe must become clearer. If Trump continues being erratic and continues doing what he did at Davos, nobody will want to invest or take or bring new initiatives until they know where these things are going," said Ellinas.
Analysts warn that in any case, the EU's growing reliance on imports of U.S. LNG create a new potentially high-risk geopolitical dependency.
“One serious challenge for the EU is that it seems to be replacing one dependency (Russia) with another (US),” said Harry Tzimitras, director of the Peace Research Institute Oslo Cyprus Centre.
“Given the unpredictable, or even outright openly threatening stance of the U.S. administration, this could potentially be dangerous. The EU seems to be repeating past mistakes, belatedly looking for alternatives to diversify its energy providers' base,” he said.
The lack of interest was also blamed on the fact that alternative routes remain more competitive with lower transit tariffs. Demand from Ukraine remains low, as it prefers other routes, mainly through Poland and Lithuania. These routes include energy from the U.S. but at a lower cost and without regulatory uncertainties.
Greece is also blaming the ambiguous stance of the EU, which has cut off supplies of Russian natural gas without fixing regulatory issues to open new supply routes.
Papastavrou, the Greek energy minister, noted that the European Commission has yet to fully endorse the design of the products offered via the Vertical Corridor, arguing they don't entirely align with the EU’s regulatory framework.
No comments:
Post a Comment