By Liz Hampton
(Reuters) -At least a dozen U.S. shale gas executives on Wednesday held discussions with European energy officials on increasing U.S. fuel supplies to Europe as part of efforts to replace Russian imports.
At the meetings in Houston, foreign affairs, economic ministers and commercial buyers discussed how to lower their imports of Russian oil, coal and liquefied natural gas following Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, trade group officials said. The European Union plans to cut its reliance on Russian gas by two-thirds this year.
Delegations from Latvia and Estonia, diplomats from Bulgaria, Estonia, France, Germany, Hungary, Latvia, and the United Kingdom toured the Golden Pass LNG export project in Sabine Pass, Texas, and later met in Houston with shale gas producers, Fred Hutchison, chief executive of trade group LNG Allies, said.
Group discussions included top executives from Chesapeake Energy (NYSE:CHK), Coterra Energy, EOG Resources (NYSE:EOG) and EQT Corp (NYSE:EQT), he said. Individual meetings are planned between U.S. executives and Latvian, Estonian and Slovak commercial representatives.
"The situation in Europe is so precarious. All these countries that are dependent on Russian gas are committed to giving it up, in some cases completely," said Hutchison.
Building LNG capacity takes years and ample new supplies will not be available until mid-decade. "The capacity challenges in 2022 are great but the opportunities in a few years are really terrific," he said.
The meeting, coordinated by the American Exploration and Production Council (AXPC) along with LNG Allies, focused on ways to move Europe off Russian gas, including the need for more infrastructure in the United States and Europe, AXPC CEO Anne Bradbury said.
The need for new LNG plants was highlighted at a congressional hearing earlier on Wednesday by Pioneer Natural Resources (NYSE:PXD) Chief Executive Scott Sheffield. He urged Congress to embrace the construction of new U.S. plants.
"We need to build LNG facilities in the northeast," Sheffield said.