The French trading firm Engie had been poised to sign the $7 billion, 20-year contract.

By BEN LEFEBVRE, Politico

The French government stepped in to force a domestic company to delay signing a potential $7 billion deal with a U.S. liquefied natural gas company last month over concerns that its U.S. shale gas was too dirty, two people familiar with the situation told POLITICO.

The incident was first reported by a French news site but independently confirmed to POLITICO by two people with direct knowledge. The delay highlights a growing concern among some U.S. natural gas exporters that the regulatory rollbacks pushed by the Trump administration, especially those easing Obama-era limits on the potent greenhouse gas methane, plus the industry’s overall failure to rein in emissions, are making it more difficult to sell their product overseas as a cleaner alternative to oil or coal.

The French trading firm Engie had been poised to sign the $7 billion, 20-year contract to buy LNG to be delivered from Next Decade’s planned Rio Grande export facility in Brownsville, Texas, one person with knowledge of the discussions said. That deal would be a boon for NextDecade, which has been trying to line up customers to take at least 11 million tons of LNG a year before it makes a final decision to build the plant.

The French government, which is a part owner of Engie, stepped in to tell Engie’s board of directors to delay, if not outright cancel, any deal because of concerns that U.S. natural gas producers emit too much methane at the West Texas oil and gas fields that will supply gas to the NextDecade plant, said Lorette Philippot, head of private finance campaigns for French environmental group Les Amis de la Terre,a French affiliate of the green group Friends of the Earth that met with French government officials to oppose the deal.

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