Akasa
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Are we talking crude or generic energy, including LNG?
The US frequently sells more oil per day than it imports. We could be completely energy independent if we chose to, and are suddenly the #1 or #2 energy producer in the world, about to be #1 for certain.
This view is very skewed. The United States is, yes, the largest energy producer in the world. However, that energy is measured in BTUs, which refers to energy that are produced from all sources of energy, including renewable energy, and also includes imported energy sources. The United States is still smaller than Russia in terms of purely oil production. The argument that the the States could become completely independent is irrelevant to its ability to export oil to the EU. Au contraire, the ability to be independent is inversely proportional to its ability to export oil.
While currently we do not export LNG, we are bursting at the seems with supply. The EU imports a minor amount from us currently, but as we import less and less, it frees up supply from the top OPEC countries in the ME.
Supply does not translate very well to sales. Oil is a resource that takes a colossal amount of money and time to make available. And as said before, all the money needed to do that would inherently drive up the price of oil and make it less attractive to Russian sources. OPEC countries would still have to contend with the fact that Russia may choose to open up its exports any time it wishes should it feel that its business is being dragged away.
I'm not suggesting the EU can or should eliminate Russian imports, I am merely saying that if Russia reduces the available supply, there are others who can pick up the slack.
The ones picking up the slack would have to take enormous steps to ensure that it happens.
Here is a good article, and it was written before all the Olympic/Ukraine fiascos:
PITTSBURGH (AP) — The Kremlin is watching, European nations are rebelling, and some suspect Moscow is secretly bankrolling a campaign to derail the West's strategic plans.
It's not some Cold War movie; it's about the U.S. boom in natural gas drilling, and the political implications are enormous.
Like falling dominoes, the drilling process called hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is shaking up world energy markets from Washington to Moscow to Beijing. Some predict what was once unthinkable: that the U.S. won't need to import natural gas in the near future, and that Russia could be the big loser
Next cold war? Gas drilling boom rattles Russia - Yahoo Finance
Yes, but it is going to be difficult. That's not something a nation or a group of nations would risk to put its peoples through without complete assurance from its allies. And at this state, the US is not ready to make that promise to the EU.