Europe to press US for cheap energy

BRUSSELS - Reuters

Europeans are expected to ask a trade deal to include energy imports. AFP Photo

European negotiators, hoping to cut fuel bills, will press their U.S. counterparts in Washington this week on including energy exports in a transatlantic trade pact that aims to integrate two markets accounting for half the world’s economy.

Bringing politically sensitive energy into the debate stands to complicate talks spanning agriculture to finance, but the rewards could be big for the European Union, where natural gas prices are around three times those in the United States.

The United States has benefited from a shale gas revolution and for Europe, U.S. imports are likely to be a faster way to lower prices than overcoming the social, planning and geological barriers to developing the continent’s own reserves.

U.S. gas exports could be up to 6 billion cubic feet, or around 170 million cubic meters per day, half of Britain’s daily demand in winter, from the end of this decade, according to the Brookings Institution.