This is why France no longer wants US LNG
The Trump administration has long since revised federal regulations on methane produced by LNG and beyond, despite some large oil companies opposing this move
The French government is taking time to import American LNG and could even cancel Engie's 20-year contract with the US signed by Engie due to climate change. According to reports from Politico.com, in fact, American gas is too 'dirty' in terms of emissions.
THE STORY
French company Engie, Politico reconstructs, “was ready to sign the $ 7 billion 20-year contract for the purchase of LNG to be delivered from NextDecade's Rio Grande export plant in Brownsville, Texas. The French government, which is a co-owner of Engie, stepped in to tell the board to delay, if not cancel, any deal due to concerns that U.S. natural gas producers emit too much methane into oil fields and gas from western Texas, said Lorette Philippot, head of private funding campaigns for the French environmental group Les Amis de la Terre, who met with French government officials to oppose the agreement ”.
AN IMPORTANT SIGN
According to Amy Harder of Axios, this is an important sign of how the world is trying to focus on low-carbon products. In this case, the greatest concern is focused on flaring, i.e. the combustion of methane produced by the production and refining process of fossil fuels. Methane is in fact a powerful greenhouse gas that NextDecade, like any other Permian company that extends from Texas to New Mexico, produces and burns with the flaring method.
TRUMP HAS REVIEWED FEDERAL STANDARDS ON FLARING
The whole issue stems from the fact that the Trump administration has long since revised federal methane regulations, despite some large oil companies opposing this move. While the European Union has moved to the opposite strategy based on the reduction of these emissions.
In essence, the risk that is materializing for oil and gas companies, and of "a world with aggressive climate policies, which they bet we will still need oil and gas", writes Axios who adds: "This is why Saudi Aramco , the state-owned oil company of Saudi Arabia, says its oil is the cleanest in the world. This is why many companies are doubling the share of gas, the cleanest fossil fuel ”.
Perhaps a change of course, Axios' Amy Harder concluded, could come with "Biden potentially reviving the rules that Trump eliminated."
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/energia/ecco-perche-la-francia-non-vuole-piu-il-gnl-degli-usa/ on Sat, 24 Oct 2020 06:48:34 +0000.