The U.S. national flag flies as the liquefied natural gas (LNG) tanker Oak Spirit, operated by Teekay Corp., sits docked with Poland's first import of U.S. LNG at the Gazoport terminal, operated by Polskie LNG SA, in Swinoujscie, Poland, on Thursday, July 25, 2019. More "freedom gas" from U.S. shale basins is earmarked for Europe after the company behind a Louisiana export project expanded a deal with Poland. Bloomberg

Europe can buy its natural gas wherever it wants, including Russia, but there should be more competition among suppliers, a top U.S. energy official told CNBC, adding that Russia was "fearful" of a rise in energy exports from America. "We expect that a lot of countries will continue to buy gas from Russia," Frank Fannon, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for energy resources, told CNBC Tuesday. "That's fine, that's great, so long as it's based on a competitive model — is there transparency in pricing, is there even a market, you can't possibly have a market if you have one supplier — that's not a market, there's no competition."