Europe is currently holding a strong lead in the annual summer competition with Asia for liquefied natural gas (LNG) cargoes, but that advantage could come under pressure as global demand begins to rise during the hottest stretch of the year.

With Russian pipeline gas now largely absent from the European market, the continent has turned to LNG as a strategic lifeline. Europe will need approximately €7 billion ($8 billion) in additional LNG imports between April and October to meet energy demand and fill storage ahead of the 2025 winter.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Friday he would pursue a new bilateral arrangement that could see U.S. cars imported into Europe duty-free in exchange for equivalent tariff waivers on German vehicles shipped to the U.S. The proposal, discussed during Merz’s first official visit to Washington for talks with U.S. President Donald Trump, aims to defuse one of the most contentious fronts in the transatlantic trade relationship.

“We have to see if we can come up with an offset rule or something along those lines,” Merz told an audience in Berlin, describing a concept that would match duty exemptions on a car-for-car basis.

Saudi Arabia is signaling a fundamental strategic shift in global oil politics, pressing OPEC+ to extend accelerated production increases through August and possibly September in a bid to reclaim market share—even at the cost of lower prices.

Riyadh is urging the group to stick with and possibly expand upon its current plan to hike output by at least 411,000 barrels per day (bpd) over the coming months. These proposed additions would build upon existing agreements to increase supply in May, June, and July by the same amount.