US interested in LNG imports through port of Sines – US energy secretary

The Secretary of Energy of the USA, Dan Brouillette, said Wednesday there is American interest in the Port of Sines (PSA), in the district of Setúbal, but also in Portugal, taking into account the “importance of energy independence”.

“There is American interest in this particular port but not only here but also in Portugal, in Europe. We have said it in the past, we think that energy independence is important and that energy security is, in fact, national security, not only for Portugal and the USA, but for the whole of Europe”, underlined Dan Brouillette.

The Energy Secretary spoke to journalists at the end of a visit he made today to the container and LNG terminals in the Port of Sines.

During his visit to the container terminal, the US Secretary was fully briefed in the expansion of Terminal XXI, a PSA investment worth €661 million, which will allow it “to double its installed capacity of 4.1 million TEU (equivalent to a 20-foot container), and on the future Vasco da Gama Terminal, which is in the “tender phase”.

For Dan Brouillette, “America has become an exporter of oil and gas, and we think that LNG is an important transition fuel for most European countries, and we think that this port, in particular, serves as a gateway to Europe, not only for American gas but for all the gas circulating in the Atlantic Ocean,” he said.

For the Minister of Infrastructure and Housing, Pedro Nuno Santos, who accompanied the US delegation, the Energy Secretary’s visit to Portugal “signals the importance they give to possible investments that can be made in the Port of Sines”.

Highlighting the potential of the Port of Sines as a “gateway to energy not only in Portugal but throughout Europe”, he reiterated that “this visit signals US interest in the possibility of the Port of Sines being used as a gateway to energy, particularly gas, throughout Europe”.

Referring to Europe’s dependence on Russian and Northern European gas supplies, the Minister of Infrastructure said there is an interest “in diversifying Europe’s gas supply with American gas, which currently offers a much more competitive price than what comes from elsewhere”.

This, he said, would “increase Europe’s diversity of supply and its autonomy and not dependence on any particular country”.