Trump: We will export American energy all over the world

World
Europe

US President Donald Trump on Thursday promoted a "golden era" of the US energy business by seeking to assert power abroad through a boost in natural gas, coal and petroleum exports.

In what he called the "energy dominance" policy, Trump re-branded efforts to export liquefied natural gas (LNG) to markets in Eastern Europe and Asia that had been set in motion during the previous presidential administration.

The United States also will offer to export coal to Ukraine, where energy consumers often have suffered from cuts in natural gas supply by Russia.

US resident Donald Trump participates in a discussion on energy with Energy Secretary Rick Perry (2nd-R), EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt (R), Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke (L) and Vice President Mike Pence (2nd-L), at the Department of Energy in Washington, US, June 29, 2017. /Reuters Photo

"We are here today to unleash a new American energy policy," Trump said at an event at the Department of Energy attended by oil and coal executives and union members who build pipelines. "We will export American energy all around the world."

Trump plans to promote US LNG exports at a meeting next week in Warsaw with a dozen leaders from central and eastern Europe, a region heavily reliant on Russian supplies. Trump then will meet Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of a Group of 20 summit in Germany, in the first meeting between the two leaders.

After decades of being a major importer of natural gas, the United States is set to become a net exporter of gas later this year or in 2018 thanks to the boom in fracking in states such as Texas and Pennsylvania.

As the United States aims to boost LNG exports, it will compete for markets with Australia, Qatar and Russia, other major gas producers.

US President Donald Trump delivers remarks during an 'Unleashing American Energy' event at the Department of Energy in Washington, US, June 29, 2017. /Reuters Photo

US crude oil exports have also risen after former president Barack Obama signed a law in 2015 allowing the shipments.

While many of Trump’s opponents have said the plan to pull the United States out of the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate has the potential to harm the country’s relations around the world, Energy Secretary Rick Perry said at the event that energy exports will strengthen ties with allies.

The United States is in a position “to be able to clearly create a hell of a lot more friends by being able to deliver to them energy and not being held hostage by some countries, Russia in particular,” Perry said.

Earlier in June, Cheniere Energy Inc. delivered the first US cargoes of LNG to Poland and the Netherlands.

(Source: Reuters)

11162km