US, Ukraine can immediately begin capitalizing on mineral deal through natural gas sales: Kyivs energy minister

The US can start reaping the rewards of the newly inked Ukraine minerals deal almost immediately — thanks to the agreement’s inclusion of liquified natural gas sales, Kyiv’s energy minister told The Post Wednesday after European nations finally agreed to stop purchasing Russian energy by 2027.The European Union on Tuesday agreed to divest entirely from Russia’s oil imports over the next year and a half, which will create an even greater reliance on Ukraine for energy resources that the US can help develop due to President Trump’s minerals agreement, Ukrainian Minister of Energy German Galushchenko said Wednesday.The arrangement — which will see the US and Ukraine splitting profits 50/50 from new mining and drilling deals reached via the partnership — is expected to be ratified by Kyiv’s parliament on Thursday, after which American and Ukrainian officials can begin drumming up business for the joint fund, he said.“This partnership could really help to produce more gas in Ukraine to back up Europe … to substitute this gap in the market by United States in (liquified natural gas) in Europe, and which is playing more important roles every year, especially when we are talking about the total total ban for Russian energy resources,” Galushchenko said.“(The US-Ukraine deal) gives the possibility to increase production of resources, which is in really demand in the European market — which is a huge market.”Unlike some of Ukraine’s critical minerals and rare-earth elements that can also be mined as part of the agreement, Galushchenko said Kyiv already knows where its oil and gas deposits are — some of which are far from the front lines and can begin to be extracted anytime.“We are talking about hundreds of billions of cubic meters of (untapped liquified natural gas),” he explained.What’s more, Ukraine already has established routes to distribute gas to the rest of Europe, meaning new businesses looking to tap into Kyiv’s resources will...