The White House’s faulty math on exporting gas to Europe

As US President Barack Obama and his administration officials continue to assure their European allies that they will receive as much natural gas from the US as they need, a Foreign Policy report shows the White House’s comforting messages do not add up mathematically.

After a meeting with European leaders in Brussels, Belgium, on March 26, Obama said future US natural gas exports to Europe can reduce US allies’ dependence on Russian gas. Obama said Washington would be able to export as much natural gas a day to Europe as the continent uses each day.

“The United States is blessed with some additional energy sources that have been developed in part because of new technologies, and we’ve already licensed, authorized the export of as much natural gas each day as Europe uses each day,” he said.

On Wednesday, also in Brussels, US Secretary of State John Kerry went beyond Obama’s claims, saying the US would be able to supply Europe with more gas than it needs.

“Our new capacities as a gas producer and the approval of seven export licenses is going to help supply gas to global markets, and we look forward to doing that starting in 2015. And we will supply more gas than all of Europe consumes today,” Kerry said.

However, a Foreign Policy report shows Obama and Kerry’s comforting messages to Washington’s European allies are either miscalculations or a deliberate refusal to underscore some key words.

According to Foreign Policy, the 28 member states of the European Union consumed about 44.7 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day in 2013. Europe imported only 4.6 billion cubic feet of the natural gas it consumed per day in 2013 in the form of liquefied gas aboard massive tankers, which is the way US companies can export natural gas to Europe.

The US Department of Energy has already approved seven natural gas terminals which could export a total of about 9.2 billion cubic feet a day. The department is considering whether to approve the construction of 30 other plants that would, in theory, allow US firms to export nearly 27 billion cubic feet a day more to EU countries.

Meanwhile, the Foreign Policy report says, Europe is unlikely to be able to buy future American gas because US firms have already signed long-term contracts with Asian countries.

This comes as The Economist illustrated Europe’s reliance on Russian gas in a picture on Thursday, saying Europe “cannot do without Russian gas.”

According to Foreign Policy, the Obama administration’s assurance to its European allies that they will be able to receive as much US natural gas as they need could be a deliberate refusal to underscore the two key words “by tanker.”