The in-depth coverage of this story, by Violetta Silvestri, is on Money.it

In the race for European independence from Russian gas, a strategic EU-US agreement has emerged for the supply of LNG, even though it is to be hoped that energy diversification will entail replacing fossil sources with renewable ones. On the specifics of the deal, the US aims to supply at least 15 billion cubic metres of additional liquefied natural gas to the EU market this year. The agreement includes a commitment by the EU to guarantee demand for around 50 billion cubic metres per year of additional LNG from the US, while remaining consistent with carbon-reduction targets and on the understanding that prices should reflect long-term market fundamentals.

Will all this be enough to sever energy ties with Moscow?

It should be noted that Europe imports most of its Russian gas via pipelines, with only a small portion arriving in the form of LNG. Russia ships around 150 billion cubic metres of gas to Europe through pipelines, of which approximately 14–18 billion is liquefied natural gas. This means that any disruption from Russia would be difficult to manage, even at a logistical level. Additional imports from the United States will take time to get under way, with Europe constrained by existing regasification capacity, the number of terminals and interconnectors. The entire system of gas collection and processing — which has until now operated through the pipelines of Russian routes — will need to be rethought. For this reason, the primary objective of a joint US-EU task force will be to diversify LNG supplies, also in line with efforts to combat climate change and reduce demand for natural gas.

The 27-nation bloc aims to replace almost two-thirds of its total gas imports from Russia this year. The impression is that without the support of renewable sources as well, the other supply routes — LNG, gas from North Africa — will not be sufficient to bring about the decisive shift.