DISINFO: The Americans are interested in disrupting gas transit via Ukraine
SUMMARY
Ukrainian experts and the government do not serve the interests of the Ukrainian people, they serve the American [energy] interest. The latter wants to sell liquefied gas, to worsen the situation in Europe and to put it on its knees using gas and political methods. And in order to accomplish this they have lit up Ukraine [with the Euromaidan revolution in 2013-2014] and have divided the European continent.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative alleging Washington is trying to create problems for the Nord Stream 2 pipeline construction and disrupt the gas transit via Ukraine in order to open the market for the liquified gas from the United States. Mixed in there is another often encountered pro-Kremlin disinformation claim blaming the US for instilling the Euromaidan. Ukraine has made it clear that it is interested and ready to continue transit of gas from Russia to the EU. On 19 September 2019, during the third round of trilateral gas talks between the EU, Ukraine, and Russia, Ukrainian delegation confirmed its willingness to sign a new contract for the duration of 10 years under the EU law. The claim that the U.S. is planning to monopolise the European gas market is sufficiently exaggerated. According to Eurostat, Russia was, and remains, the largest supplier of natural gas and petroleum to the EU. Moreover, it has increased its share over the last years. Whereas in 2017 Russia accounted for 39.3% of all gas imports, in 2018 its share increased to 40.2%. The other large suppliers of natural gas are Norway (35% in 2018), Algeria (11.3%), Qatar (5.8%), and other suppliers – 7.7%. It is the same situation with petroleum where Russia's share is 27.3%; Norway is in second place with 11.2%. As of 2018-2019, the U.S. is only the third biggest supplier of LNG to Europe with a share of 12.6% of all EU LNG imports. For the U.S., EU is also not the biggest purchaser, since it accounts only for 10% of all U.S. LNG exports. Overall, from August 2018 until April 2019, the EU bought in from the U.S. 10.4 billion cubic metres of gas. To compare, in 2018 Russia’s gas exports to the EU reached 202 bcm which set a record.