U.S. exports of liquefied natural gas have been a “lifesaver” to Europe following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine more than three years ago, one of the State Department’s top energy diplomats said Thursday.
Russia has “proved itself to be a completely unreliable supplier” of gas and has weaponized its energy, said Laura Lochman, acting assistant secretary for the department’s Bureau of Energy Resources, at an event Thursday in Washington organized by the LNG Allies trade group.
“There’s a dual imperative here, and one is to reduce anyone’s dependence on Russia for a broad swath of energy products, and then the second piece is to reduce the flow of income to [Russian President Vladimir] Putin and his regime, to prosecute the war and to be the malign actor they have proven to be,” she said when asked about U.S. sanctions on Russia.
Lochman’s remarks follow reporting from Reuters that the United States and Russia have held talks about boosting Russian gas sales to Europe, as President Donald Trump works to broker a peace deal over the war in Ukraine. And POLITICO has reported on White House discussions about possibly lifting sanctions on Russian energy assets.
