America’s New Energy Diplomacy
Editorial
The Wall Street Journal
November 27, 2017
Poland wants to reduce its reliance on Russian energy, and last week its state-owned oil and gas company, PGNiG, signed its first five-year deal to buy American liquefied natural gas. The agreement illustrates how the energy boom from the fracking revolution can serve U.S. national interests and deter the reach of dictators abroad.
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Russia’s era of go-freeze-yourself foreign policy may be drawing to a close. In 2015—the year Moscow cut off gas supplies to Ukraine—the U.S. surpassed Russia as the world’s top natural-gas producer.
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President Trump has built on that momentum.
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Under the deal announced last week, the British utility Centrica will deliver as many as nine cargos of LNG, or roughly 30 billion cubic feet based on average shipments, for Polish consumption. Centrica buys that LNG from Cheniere Energy’s Sabine Pass terminal in Louisiana, which liquefies natural gas from more than a dozen states and Canada.
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By offering an alternative to Russian energy, the U.S. empowers its European allies and weakens the Kremlin’s coercive regional influence.