President Trump and King Felipe VI of Spain discussed finding new sources of energy for Europe this week at the White House.
In addition to reaffirming the countries’ military and cultural ties, the president and the king discussed “balancing transatlantic trade and diversifying Europe’s sources of energy,” the White House said Wednesday.
Increasing crude oil and natural gas exports is a major part of Trump’s energy dominance agenda, with Europe seen as a top market for those resources. Trump reportedly has been trying to re-balance trade with other countries by urging them to buy more energy from the U.S.
Spain is one of the largest natural gas-consuming countries in Europe, according to the Energy Department. Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Netherlands, and Spain are the top importers of natural gas. The U.S. doesn’t rely on Spanish energy, importing just over 17,000 barrels of oil and related products from the country last year.
Meanwhile, Europe lagged the rest of the world in the growth of new oil and natural gas production and discoveries, the Energy Information Administration, the Energy Department’s energy analysis arm, reported Wednesday.
Of the 17.7 billion barrels added to the global supply of oil and natural gas in 2017, Europe accounted for the “fewest” numbers of barrels in added reserves for the sixth year in a row. Europe added 0.3 billion barrels of equivalent oil reserves, while the U.S. made up nearly half of the global total.
Russia, Central Asia, and the Asia-Pacific region accounted for 24 percent, or 4.3 billion barrels, while Canada, Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa each added more than 1.1 billion barrels of oil to their reserves.
Trump and first lady Melania Trump met with King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia on Tuesday, which was the last stop for the royals on their tour of the U.S. to mark 300 years of historic and cultural ties.
