INTERVIEW: Uniper eyes more US LNG exposure

Uniper remains open to expanding its exposure to LNG from the US, even as it seeks to diversify its portfolio, the German energy company's chief commercial officer for gas and LNG told Platts, part of S&P Global Energy.

"We have not reached the peak" of Uniper's interest in US LNG, Charbel Abi Daher said in an interview on Feb. 20.

The EU has dramatically deepened its reliance on US LNG while phasing out Russian gas in recent years.

In 2025, the US supplied about 60 million metric tons of the super chilled fuel to the EU, according to data from S&P Global Energy CERA. This was about 57% of the EU's total imports that year, marking the first time on record that the EU sourced more than half of its annual imports from one country.

Some European players have begun to fret that the Continent is repeating the mistake of relying too much on one gas supplier by shifting from a heavy Russian dependency to a heavy US one, particularly amid creaking EU-US relations in the wake of US President Donald Trump's recent push to acquire Greenland.

However, the Uniper executive downplayed such worries. Abi Daher said he sees a "low probability" that political turbulence threatens US-EU LNG trade.

"They need markets and consumers, and we need their gas," he said. "It's in the best interests of both parties to continue working together."

Methane regulation challenges

Indeed, Uniper is seeking to source more LNG from the US but is struggling while navigating the EU's methane emissions regulation, according to Abi Daher.

The landmark law mandates that market players importing LNG and other fuels into the EU meet emissions reporting standards for their cargoes from 2027. It's proved a bugbear for both buyers and sellers inside and outside the EU, who have criticized what they see as impractical data collection and reporting mandates.

The European Commission has pledged to support flexible implementation of the law to ensure supply security -- although various industry groups have called to postpone the rollout while regulators release more detailed guidance.

Abi Daher confirmed that Uniper has delayed concluding LNG trade agreements, in part, due to uncertainty around the regulation.

"To make a decision whether you sign or not sign, you need to solve this," he said. "This is one important factor for us that is not an easy one."

"We need close cooperation with our international suppliers, particularly in the US, to ensure compliance," he said. "At the same time, the EU regulatory framework should remain balanced and practicable, reflecting what global markets can realistically deliver and supporting effective implementation without jeopardising security of supply."

Even while Uniper sees limited political risk to US LNG trade, the company is also eyeing other ways to hedge its portfolio against shocks, Abi Daher said.

Middle Eastern suppliers are the only other major sources of affordable LNG for Europe, he explained. But the company is keeping an eye on other LNG projects in the works, "for instance, in Argentina," he added.

"We're monitoring all these projects," he said.

Pipelines are another option, Abi Daher explained.

"LNG is a part of it, but also we try to diversify by looking at new pipeline sources -- for instance, in Europe from Norway, from the east," he said.

Gas storage needs

In the shorter term, Abi Daher maintained that LNG is not a one-size-fits-all solution to Europe's gas requirements.

The Continent is facing an increasingly thin buffer of gas stocks to see it through the rest of this winter. Total EU gas storage was filled to 30.9% as of Feb. 21, according to the latest data from Gas Infrastructure Europe. This is down roughly 10 percentage points compared to the same time last year. Germany, home to about 22% of EU-wide storage capacity, saw facilities at just 20.5% full, the data showed.

The German energy ministry said Feb. 18 that low storage levels do not threaten supply security thanks to expanded LNG import capacity since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Abi Daher stressed, however, that LNG is not a perfect replacement for all European gas needs. In particular, storage sites are better suited to meet immediate requirements, since they are already in countries and buyers can tap them at shorter notice, he said.

"I don't agree with that view that LNG necessarily is replacing one-to-one the need for storage," he said. "It's more logistics needed -- and consequently more risks -- to get the LNG 'just-in-time' compared to the gas in storage."

Uniper, which is also Germany's largest gas storage operator, has pushed for the country to maintain some degree of storage capacity "for security of supply," even if it's uneconomical, Abi Daher said.

Despite waning gas stocks, prices for LNG into Europe are sitting well below recent highs.

Platts, part of S&P Global Energy, assessed the DES Northwest Europe LNG marker at $9.758/MMBtu on Feb. 20, down 4.94% day over day. The index has tumbled about 23.6% since cresting at $12.78/MMBtu in late January.

Biomethane prospects

In the longer term, EU leaders have increasingly advocated for greater European energy independence amid heightened geopolitical uncertainty.

Boosting biomethane output is seen as a way to expand Europe's supply of domestically produced gas, given the Continent's limited upstream activity.

Abi Daher offered qualified enthusiasm for the sector. He said Uniper sees biomethane as a "very interesting" market to "supplement" gas supply. However, he also stressed that regulatory complexity is a headwind to its expansion.

"It has an issue with scalability," he said. "We cannot see it replacing to a large extent the normal gas market. But it of course plays a niche role -- or a certain contribution -- to diversify the [European] gas supply."