By Ryan Dezember

The White House is celebrating its trade pact with the European Union, in which the economic bloc pledged to buy $750 billion of U.S. energy products over the next three years, mainly of liquefied natural gas, or LNG.

Investors aren't nearly as enthused. Natural-gas futures are trading lower on expectations for reduced demand in the second half of summer, weighing on shares of big domestic producers, including EQT and Range Resources. Meanwhile, shares of LNG exporters Cheniere Energy and Venture Global have pared their gains since trading opened.

For one, the trade deal isn't legally binding. Also, reaching such a large sum of energy imports would require a major rearrangement of trade flows. The U.S. annually exports about $80 billion of oil, LNG and other fuels to the EU, according to Goldman Sachs. That's about one-fourth of all U.S. energy exports. Although U.S. LNG export capacity is on track to more than double by 2028, it isn't clear how export capacity could rise to the degree necessary to reach $250 billion a year to Europe alone.

Though the deal isn't moving natural-gas markets, it did provide a spark for oil prices. Benchmark U.S. crude futures ended 2.4% higher Monday as traders recalibrated their global growth expectations now that it appears Trump's trade war will be fought on one less front. Improving oil prices, in turn, lifted shares of U.S. producers, including Diamondback Energy and Devon Energy, both of which traded more than 3% higher in afternoon trading.

Read more on the challenges of fulfilling the EU's big energy promise:

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July 28, 2025 14:57 ET (18:57 GMT)

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