More US LNG exports to Europe will help market, Uniper CEO says

BERLIN, Jan 22 (Reuters): More US exports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Europe as called for by President Donald Trump will relieve tight global markets, reduce prices, and help traders diversify their supplies, the head of German utility Uniper said on Wednesday

"When Trump sends more gas to Europe it will reduce the world gas price," chief executive Michael Lewis told Reuters.

"It means lower energy prices for German industry and customers, that's why it's positive," he said in an interview during the Handelsblatt Energy Summit.

On his first day in office on Monday, Trump issued an order for the US to resume processing export permit applications for new LNG projects which were halted by his predecessor Joe Biden.

However, the United States is currently exporting all the gas it can ship out and sending more would require a steep increase in production, something that will take time and could prove challenging given current low prices.

US LNG has already helped make up for a significant part of supply lost when Germany stopped Russian pipeline imports on which it had long relied after Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.

US LNG accounted for 91 per cent of imports at German regasification terminals in 2024, covering 9 per cent of national gas usage in December, industry group BDEW said. In 2023, US LNG made up 84 per cent of imports, which in Dec. 2023 met 6.9 per cent of demand.