For one, shale gas/oil is cheap domestically in the US because of subsidies, otherwise it probably couldn’t compete with conventionally-sourced oil/gas. For two, to get the stuff to Europe, you need to liquefy it and put it on a tanker and then travel a bit. Hence, LNG overall (much of it from Russia rather than the US, actually!) is used only for the final percentage points rather than being a dominant source. The dominant source of pipeline gas in Germany used to be Russia. Since 2022, the dominant source of gas is Norway.
What’s not visible in the graph above is that consumption also went down considerably (by ~20%) in Germany since 2022, as people adjusted down their boilers, and the recession took hold.
For one, shale gas/oil is cheap domestically in the US because of subsidies, otherwise it probably couldn’t compete with conventionally-sourced oil/gas. For two, to get the stuff to Europe, you need to liquefy it and put it on a tanker and then travel a bit. Hence, LNG overall (much of it from Russia rather than the US, actually!) is used only for the final percentage points rather than being a dominant source. The dominant source of pipeline gas in Germany used to be Russia. Since 2022, the dominant source of gas is Norway.
What’s not visible in the graph above is that consumption also went down considerably (by ~20%) in Germany since 2022, as people adjusted down their boilers, and the recession took hold.