The US will help the EU secure an additional 15 billion cubic metres of liquefied natural gas by year’s end, President Biden and the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, announced in Brussels on Friday, an important step in the bloc’s race to wean itself off Russian fuel imports.
The EU is heavily reliant on energy imports from Russia, including oil, gas, liquefied gas and coal, and that dependence has become a growing problem as the bloc seeks to punish President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia for his monthlong invasion of Ukraine.
The US would like the EU to impose an oil and gas embargo on Russia, but the prospect has been dismissed by several EU leaders, who see it as a financially disastrous step that would hurt Europe more than Russia.
