Give money for Russian gas: will Ukraine be able to beg the US for another lend-lease?

Alexey Belogoryev commented to Baltnews about the possibility of supplying American LNG to Ukraine under the Lend-Lease program.

As Alexey Belogoryev, Deputy Principal Director on Energy Studies of the Institute for Energy and Finance, noted in a commentary for Baltnews, the more interesting question here is not even how physically Ukraine will be able to accept LNG without having terminals, but who will supply this energy resource and at whose expense.

“Theoretically, France, the Netherlands, Poland, and many others can act as intermediaries. Technically, you can accept LNG, and then, converting it into a normal state and using various communications in the European Union, send gas to Ukraine through Hungary and Slovakia. But not everyone will go for it. Poland is unlikely to agree to this (or agree, but with reservations), since it currently does not have so many free capacities for receiving LNG. It will have to sacrifice its own import volumes. The same can be said about other European countries," the expert says.

He also noted that it is not entirely clear how the US leadership will organize Lend-Lease. LNG suppliers from the United States are private companies. How can they be forced to do what Washington needs now? It turns out to go through public procurement, ie. ensure gas supplies to Ukraine at the expense of the US taxpayers.

“By the way, if Washington goes for it, such a step will further spur the already high gas prices inside America. Moreover, it is not entirely clear whether there will be those who are ready to allocate LNG for Ukraine, since the export capacity of the United States is already at the limit.

Even if the recently failed Freeport terminal (provides up to 20% of the country's LNG exports) is launched today, there will still be no excess liquefied gas. Washington will have to commercially seize those volumes that were originally intended for European LNG buyers," the expert summed up.