European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Friday that the European Union may consider replacing Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports with supplies from the United States.

"We still get a lot of LNG from Russia and why not replace it by American LNG, which is cheaper for us and brings down our energy prices," said von der Leyen.

She said the EU approach to trade policies implemented when Donald Trump takes power again as U.S. president in January will be to engage, look at common interests and negotiate.

The EU estimates that about 4 billion to 6 billion cubic meters (141 billion to 212 billion cubic feet) of Russian LNG was shipped to third countries via EU ports last year. Russia is suspected of running a "ghost fleet" to evade sanctions and keep up the flow of energy earnings so that it can finance the war.

Some central European countries still receive pipeline gas from Russia via Ukraine. The EU banned Russian oil imports in 2022 with some limited exemptions.