American liquefied natural gas (LNG) companies expected Europe to become their reference market and to finance, through its purchases, the construction of new export projects. Instead, the Old Continent has so far not signed many long-term supply contracts, despite the crisis in the Persian Gulf and despite the plans to detach energy from Russia.
According to sources from Bloomberg, American LNG exporters have received many expressions of interest from potential European customers, but few concrete purchase commitments: apparently, the widespread fear of developing excessive dependence on the United States plays a role, which are no longer perceived as trusted allies.
THE WORDS OF EXXONMOBIL
Already last September – that is, even before the war of the United States and Israel against Iran began – an executive of the oil company ExxonMobil said to the Financial Times that Europe had become “the most important market” for American LNG exporters. According to him, the region should “understand how to support long-term contracts,” rather than proceeding with purchases on the spot market, the daily and wholesale one.
For sellers, long-term contracts are advantageous because they guarantee certainty and allow investment planning. For buyers, instead, contracts offer fixed prices and usually lower than those on the spot market (on which, moreover, LNG shipments tend to head towards areas of the world willing to pay more).
NO NEW AGREEMENTS WITH ITALY, GERMANY, AND FRANCE
Yet, since the beginning of the year, American LNG companies have signed only one new long-term supply agreement in Europe, with Greece. No contracts, however, have been signed with the continent’s largest economies, namely Italy, France, and Germany.
In July of last year, instead, Eni had reached a twenty-year agreement with Venture Global for two million tons of liquefied gas per year. The German company Sefe had also signed a twenty-year contract with Venture Global, plus one for ten years with ConocoPhillips.
THE UNITED STATES NEED EUROPE, AND VICE VERSA
For Europe, the United States have already proven to be fundamental energy suppliers in 2022, after the invasion of Ukraine, when they allowed the replacement of Russian gas with their LNG. In 2025, the United States accounted for more than 26 percent of the European Union’s total gas imports, preceded only by Norway with 31 percent.
Europe, given the size of its market, is also fundamental for the United States: American exporters indeed count on contracts with European buyers to finance the construction of new plants, which can cost several billion dollars. Without long-term agreements, however, financing these projects becomes difficult. Last year, moreover, the company Energy Transfer had to suspend the development of the Lake Charles terminal in Louisiana precisely because costs had risen too much and the investment’s profitability was compromised.
POLITICS IS NOT THE ONLY FACTOR
The reluctance of European energy companies to sign long-term agreements with Americans is also due to the perception that the United States – given the words and actions of President Donald Trump on trade, NATO, or Greenland, for example – are no longer reliable allies as they once were. One of the countries most exposed to the United States energy-wise is Germany, since over 90 percent of its LNG imports come precisely from America.
– For further reading: Germany will gas itself with LNG from Canada to break away from the US
But Italy also imports quite a bit of American LNG. In 2025, our liquefied fuel imports nearly reached 21 billion cubic meters in total: the main suppliers are precisely the United States with a 44 percent share, followed at a distance by Qatar (24 percent) and Algeria (21 percent).
Beyond political reasoning, according to Bloomberg, Europe’s reluctance to sign long-term contracts also depends on economic calculations. Europeans, that is, are fine sourcing from the spot market – despite greater exposure to price and supply crises – because a multi-year commitment could turn out to be disadvantageous and conflict with the EU’s decarbonization goals. In other words, Europe consumes a lot of gas today, but in a few years demand could decrease due to the replacement of fossil fuels in electricity generation.
In this regard, an executive of the German energy company Uniper recently stated that “in Europe there are long-term decarbonization plans, with regulations already in force that we must take into account. I do not expect customers in Europe to commit so easily to a twenty-year” LNG contract.
