Romania might lobby Washington to import natural gas from the U.S.

Romania and other Eastern European countries that are dependent on Russia for their energy supplies, are currently working on forming a lobbying coalition to convince the U.S. to allow them to import natural gas. National Journalreports that the countries are working with a Washington-based government-affairs firm to launch a lobbying coalition in the next month with American energy companies. The coalition, named LNG Allies, will lobby Washington for easier access to natural gas from the United States. The current federal law significantly restricts U.S. companies from exporting natural gas to countries that are not free-trade partners with United States, which includes Europe. The source quoted by the National Journal said that the countries likely to be part of the coalition are Austria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, and the Slovak Republic. However, other potential members include Croatia, Hungary, Slovenia, Sweden, and Greece. Two U.S. trade associations, namely America's Natural Gas Alliance and the American Petroleum Institute, have not yet committed to the effort but are currently discussing it. “We certainly are interested in Eastern European markets and we are considering the best way to work with those countries to bring them America's clean and abundant natural gas, but we have not yet reached a formal agreement to work with one group or another in that endeavor," according to ANGA spokesman Dan Whitten, quoted by the National Journal. In public events throughout Washington in recent months and in multiple interviews for National Journal’s story, officials representing European countries stressed both the national security and economic reasons why they want to import natural gas from the U.S. Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com