New gas sources in Southeast Europe, such as potential exploitation in the Romanian Black Sea, do not endanger the profitability of building an LNG terminal at Krk island, Croatia as the demand for this energy source will only grow, while its price will fall, US Secretary of Energy Rick Perry said in Ljubljana on Wednesday.

Croatia’s Vecernji List daily said recently the potential exploitation of gas in the Romanian part of the Black Sea, in which the US company ExxonMobil has the lead role, would make the already modest capacities of the LNG terminal in Croatia irrelevant for the broader region.

The paper also said that Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, whose country has submitted a bid for a 25% stake in the Croatian LNG project, said upon returning from Washington that the US project in Romania had been the “first and most important topic” of his talks with President Donald Trump.

Critics of the construction of the LNG terminal in Croatia also note that the 20 or so such terminals already existing in Europe work at 25% capacity.

I think those arguments are not legitimate, said Perry, who arrived in Slovenia to attend a Three Seas Initiative summit.

You will need much more gas than we will be able to deliver, he said, adding that the appetite for cleaner energy sources was increasing in Europe.

If Europe wants an economic transition, it will need more energy, Perry said, adding that Germany planned to abandon nuclear energy.

Either the lights will go out or they will use LNG. There is no third option, he said about Germany, adding that the US supported the construction of the Krk terminal. Not necessarily for the purchase of US gas, he said, but because more routes and suppliers is a good formula for Europe which cannot be free and sovereign if it depends only on Russian gas.

Russia currently sells gas at a lower price, but Perry said the price of US gas was constantly falling, that this would continue and that US natural gas reserves were massive.

He also said climate change could not be fought without nuclear energy free of harmful emissions. He announced a forum for next monthbetween the European Commission and his department on Small modular reactors.