The EU can go ahead and accelerate the phase-out of its natural gas imports from Russia, thereby ending the purchases within a period of 6 to 12 months by replacing it with the American LNG, Chris Wright, the U.S. Energy Secretary, confirmed to Reuters on September 12 after communicating the same to the EU officials in Brussels on September 11.
According to Wright, this could seamlessly be done within a matter of a year or maybe within six months. He further added that he definitely has gone ahead and voiced the opinion that together, they could do it faster.
He remarked that when it comes to the U.S. side, they could do it faster, and as per him, it would be good if those time frames could be moved up even more. Wright opines that he really doesn’t know if that was going to happen; however, all this was dialogued, referring to his meeting with Dan Jorgensen, the EU Energy Commissioner.
It is well to be noted that the EU at present looks forward to phasing out all of its imports of Russian gas by the end of 2027, as per a roadmap to go ahead and end the dependency when it comes to Russian energy. This roadmap was unveiled in May 2025.
It is worth noting that this roadmap calls for the EU to halt imports of Russian oil and gas by the end of 2027 by way of enhancing the transparency and tracking as well as the traceability of Russian gas all throughout the EU markets. New contracts along with the suppliers of Russian gas are going to be prevented, and spot contracts when it comes to immediate payment are going to be stopped by the end of 2025.
According to Ursula von der Leyen, the President of the European Commission, they are especially looking at phasing out the Russian fossil fuels much faster. She said this at the 2025 State of the Union Address on September 10, without giving further details on how the EU could or plans to do it.
Apparently, the US has started to increase pressure on Europe so as to cut off its energy dependence on Russia and at the same time also halt imports of Russian oil and gas in order to decrease the revenues for the Kremlin and thereby force the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, to go ahead and engage in genuine dialogue on peace in Ukraine.
Wright told Reuters that the faster they phase out, the sooner one could go ahead and put pressure on Russia. All this comes as the United States intensifies its pressure on the EU as well as G6 partners to act on tariffs on India as well as China when it comes to their continued imports of the Russian crude oil.
