Washington’s ambition to replace Russia as Eastern Europe’s dominant gas supplier has hit a surprise hurdle: European buyers, it seems, don’t want it.

Two months ago U.S. government officials descended on Athens to declare themselves the big new energy player in the Mediterranean.

New and revamped terminals in Greece would receive shiploads of American liquefied natural gas, which would then be carried up to neighboring countries from Bulgaria to Ukraine by way of the “Vertical Corridor” network of pipes. The aim, they said, was to replace “every last molecule of Russian gas.”

“What we see for the future of Greece and the United States is Greece being an energy hub and showing this energy dominance that both of our countries can experience and work together cooperatively to achieve tremendous outcomes,” U.S. Ambassador Kimberly Guilfoyle said at the time.

But when the Greek government on Monday asked energy companies to bid for access to these gas pipelines, the auctions were a flop. They attracted almost zero interest from energy companies, prompting warnings from analysts that U.S. President Donald Trump’s unpredictable trade policy is undermining his own energy export ambitions.

The scale of the flop was striking. Out of nearly 72 gigawatt-hours of pipeline capacity offered to companies across three different entry routes, a minuscule 48 megawatt-hours — less than 0.1 percent of the total on offer — were eventually booked. A similar auction in December was even more of a flop, attracting no bids at all.