Europe’s growing reliance on U.S. LNG raises political leverage concerns

Analysts warn that Europe’s increasing dependence on liquefied natural gas from the United States could become a political pressure point amid smoldering tensions between Washington and Brussels. After Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine squeezed pipeline supplies, large U.S. shipments of L.N.G.

helped calm markets. U.S. exports to Europe rose sharply: the United States supplied about 5 percent of European imports in late 2019 but provided more than a quarter of the European Union’s gas imports in 2025, while Russian gas, which once accounted for more than half of EU gas imports in 2019, fell to around 12 percent in 2025.

Bruegel said L.N.G. flows from the United States to EU countries jumped about 60 percent in 2025 from the previous year. Analysts quoted in the coverage said the shift has replaced one dependency with another. “We’ve replaced one massive dependency with another one,” said Henning Gloystein of Eurasia Group, and Anne‑Sophie Corbeau said, “we are probably a little bit too dependent on U.S.

L.N.G.” The Trump administration’s recent trade posture and moves such as a push to take over Greenland have heightened concern that energy ties could be used as leverage. What comes next is uncertain. Some analysts expect a supply boom that could lower prices, and others say the United States is more likely to redirect exports than to halt them because cutting shipments would harm the U.S.

Key Topics

Business, Liquefied Natural Gas, European Union, Gazprom, Cheniere Energy, Trump Administration