US demands EU exempt its gas from methane emissions law, document shows

By Kate Abnett

BRUSSELS, Dec 15 (Reuters) - The U.S. has demanded that the European Union exempt its oil and gas from obligations under the bloc's methane emissions law on fuel imports until 2035, a U.S. government document seen by Reuters showed.

Starting this year, the EU requires importers of oil and gas to Europe to monitor and report methane emissions associated with those imports, in a bid to curb emissions of the potent planet-warming gas.

The world-first climate policy has faced opposition from U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright, who has called it impossible to implement and warned it could disrupt U.S. gas supplies to Europe. European countries have increased imports of U.S. liquefied natural gas as they phase out oil and gas from Russia.

The U.S. document said that in the absence of a "full repeal" of the EU law, Washington was asking the EU to "delay requiring U.S. emissions data reporting under the EUMR [EU Methane Regulation] until October 2035."

"The EU Methane Regulations is a critical non-tariff trade barrier that imposes an undue burden on U.S. exporters and our trade relationship," said the document, circulated to EU member governments ahead of a meeting of their energy ministers in Brussels on Monday.

The U.S. Department of Energy did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the document.

The EU said last week it would offer companies simpler routes to prove compliance with the law, aimed at complex supply chains like those in the U.S. where one LNG shipment contains gas from many different production fields.

EU Energy Commissioner Dan Jorgensen told reporters on Monday the bloc was in talks with the U.S., but would not weaken the methane law, which will impose increasingly tough obligations on fuel imports over time.

"We are trying to be as helpful as we can, with regards to implementation, but the legislation stands," Jorgensen said.

"We are not considering withdrawing the legislation or an exemption to the legislation."

Methane emissions are the second-biggest cause of global warming, after carbon dioxide.

The U.S. document also asked the EU to deem U.S. methane emissions laws equivalent to its own – meaning U.S. producers would automatically comply – and for Brussels to commit to not apply penalties if U.S. oil and gas imports breach the rules.

Industry sources said it was unlikely the U.S. could be granted this "equivalence", since the Trump administration has moved to roll back its federal emissions reporting requirements, including by suspending some for the oil and gas sector until 2034.

A joint paper by U.S. and EU oil and gas industry groups, seen by Reuters, also called for changes to the policy, including delaying tougher obligations due to apply from 2027.

Dan Byers, vice president for policy at industry group the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said the EU methane law was "uniquely complicated for the United States, where you have all of these countless producers, molecules being co-mingled".