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EU methane rules sharpen focus on slip
US objections to EU methane reporting raised pressure on LNG shipping to quantify slip, as new measurement data was presented in London
On 15 December 2025, the administration in Washington asked the European Union to exempt US oil and gas from obligations under the bloc’s methane emissions law on fuel imports until October 2035, including a request to “delay requiring US emissions data reporting”, according to Reuters.
Reuters reported the EU had offered simpler compliance routes on 11 December 2025, but kept the core requirements intact, with EU Energy Commissioner Dan Jorgensen quoted as saying, “We will not change the legislation.”
The latest political pressure from the USA landed as methane slip monitoring moved from technical debate into compliance planning, as noted at the LNG Shipping & Terminals Conference in London in October 2025.
There, Chalmers University of Technology professor Johan Mellqvist presented preliminary results from Great Belt Bridge ’sniffer’ measurements in Denmark.
He told delegates, “About 25,000 ships pass there” and said the work had examined “about 100 individual LNG vessels” with “many hundreds” of measurements.
His slide deck described continuous Great Belt Bridge measurements from 2018–2023, linking plume data to AIS-based ship identification.
In the session, Mr Mellqvist said the data indicated slip varied strongly with engine load, adding, “When the engine load is below 40%, the emissions are really getting high.”
He said, “We have up to 7% slip from low-pressure four stroke engines,” and when asked about the worst single measurement, replied, “It’s 20-30% slip.”
He told delegates the climate relevance in simple terms, “Methane is … almost 30 times … stronger than CO2 in climate impact over 100 years.”
The US move echoes the sentiment of Qatar, which pointed out providing Europe with energy to replace Russian supplies should not result in a penalty on the provider.
In January 2025, chief executive Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi criticised the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive, which imposes stringent environmental compliance measures on energy suppliers.
Mr Al-Kaabi warned such regulations could render LNG exports to Europe economically unviable, stating, "I am not going to supply the EU with LNG to support their energy requirements and then be penalised with our total revenue worldwide."
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