NEWS

(Bloomberg) – The European Union’s promise to buy $750 billion of American energy imports over three years was pivotal to securing a trade deal with President Donald Trump, but it’s a pledge it will struggle to keep.

The deal would require annual purchases of $250 billion of natural gas, oil and nuclear technology, including small modular reactors, according to EU officials. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the bloc’s estimates were based on the existing plan to shift away from remaining Russian fossil fuel supplies and purchasing “more affordable and better” liquefied natural gas from U.S. producers.

Yet it’s hard to see how the EU attains such ambitious flows over such a short time frame. Total energy imports from the US accounted for less than $80 billion last year, far short of the promise made by von der Leyen to Trump. Total U.S. energy exports were just over $330 billion in 2024.

The huge figure for energy imports “is meaningless, as it’s unachievable not only because EU demand cannot grow that much, but also because U.S. exporters cannot supply that much either!” said Davide Oneglia, an economist at TS Lombard.

The lack of detail underlines that the deal finalized by von der Leyen and Trump in Scotland is a pragmatic, political agreement, rather than a legally binding pact.

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