BRUSSELS

The US' liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports to Europe increased year-on-year by 140% to 56 billion cubic meters (bcm) in 2022, the US secretary of state announced Tuesday.

Speaking ahead of the EU-US Energy Council meeting to be held in Brussels with EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, Antony Blinken said that together with Borrell they discussed the US and the EU's unprecedented cooperation on energy security and would continue to discuss accelerating these efforts in more detail in the upcoming meeting.

"We share our commitment to prevent a climate catastrophe through accelerating the global clean energy transition, building resilient, secure and diversified supply chains for renewable energy, and doing it in a way that creates good paying jobs and lowers costs for people on both sides of the Atlantic," Blinken said.

"Russia's weaponization of energies underscores the urgency of that task and an opportunity to accelerate our progress," he noted, adding that over the past year, the US and Europe have thrown their energy security cooperation into even higher gear.

According to Blinken, the US exported 56 billion cubic meters of LNG to Europe in 2022, accounting for 40% of total European LNG imports and representing a 140% annual increase.

Blinken reiterated that the EU was 40% dependent on Russian gas at the start of the war, but that this had dropped to 15% by the end of last year.

"When we convene the council in a few minutes, we will focus on how we can further reduce European dependence on Russian energy and boost the Euro-Atlantic regions' clean energy production," Blinken said.

"We have been able to get rid of the Russian dependency on gas, and we will discuss today how to accelerate the green energy transition by reducing methane emissions and launching a new global energy efficiency initiative," Borrell also added.

Along with Borrell and Blinken, EU Energy Commissioner Kadri Simson and US Deputy Secretary for Energy David Turk will attend the meeting.

The meeting will focus on accelerating the green transformation, energy security, the outlook for the next winter, clean energy technologies, energy savings and a reduction in methane emissions.

*Writing by Ebru Sengul Cevrioglu