US, Ukraine can immediately begin capitalizing on mineral deal through natural gas sales: Kyiv's energy minister
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.
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4 Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky meets with US President Donald Trump on the sidelines of Pope Francis's funeral at St. Peter's Basilica at The Vatican on April 26, 2025.
UKRAINIAN FOREIGN MINISTRY/AFP via Getty Images
'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.'
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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 be able to sell their products much sooner.
4 Ukraine's Minister of Energy German Galushchenko attends a panel discussion at the Future of Energy Security Summit on April 24, 2025 in London, England.
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'We have a lot of interconnectors with European countries,' he said. 'We transited billions of gas before, and in fact, any production in Ukraine could immediately be an instrument to supply these products to Europe.'
While a dollar figure for how much the US can expect to gain from the agreement remained unclear Wednesday, the minerals deal does not cap the amount — meaning that the potential reward could be limitless.
The partnership is not limited only to the sale of Ukraine's resources, but also other related business opportunities the US helps attract to the fund, such as new energy storage facilities, he said.
4 An employee turns a valve of a gas installation during a training exercise for handling emergencies at a gas-pumping station on the gas pipeline in the small town Boyarka on April 22, 2015 in the Kiev region.
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Interest in energy storage has grown in Europe since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, when the continent was forced to suddenly scramble for alternative supplies of oil and gas after being heavily reliant on Moscow's.
'After (the war's) impact to the gas markets in Europe, everyone now understands that every country wants to have some gas storage for the winter for the security of supply,' the minister said.
Further, American companies could store their own gas in Ukrainian storage facilities in reserves to sell to European countries during times of increased energy demand, Galushchenko said.
4 Volodymyr Zelensky, German Galushchenko and Petro Kotin visit the Khmelnytskyi Nuclear Power Plant, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, near the town of Netishyn, in Khmelnytskyi region, Ukraine February 13, 2025.
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'That is also huge, huge potential for us, because it could be US LNG in Ukrainian storages, which could be used during the wintertime to provide the energy support supply for European countries,' he said.
The idea aligns with Trump's concerns with over-reliance on any one particular country for resources, Galushchenko said, as the US administration has prioritized finding minerals deals with not only Ukraine but also Greenland to combat American over-reliance on adversaries such as China.
'A lot of countries really already went through (over-reliance on Russia,) and (the divestment pledge) is the signal with which they officially confirm that they never, they never will allow this situation again,' he said.
'And it means that it really gives us a huge opportunity.'
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