US could soon be dominant world supplier of LNG

Fuel Fix:
The U.S. is soon expected to become a dominant player in the global market for liquefied natural gas as Gulf Coast companies build massive terminals to serve overseas markets and the federal government considers looser regulations for small-scale exports closer to home.

Officials, executives and consultants at the S&P Global Platts annual LNG conference in Houston agreed that the ongoing production boom in West Texas and other shale basins across throughout the country has already begun to transform LNG into a global commodity by shifting trade patterns and longstanding business models elsewhere in the world. They said the U.S. will need to ramp up exports in the coming years as increasingly efficient drilling methods create a domestic supply glut.

"We're going to have too much gas with nowhere to go," said Renato Pereira, vice president of business development and marketing for Houston's Tellurian Inc., an LNG upstart.

The interest in LNG exports, pioneered by Houston's Cheniere Energy in 2016, has intensified amid an ongoing renaissance in U.S. energy production. In West Texas, energy companies have found cheap and effective ways to tap the rich Permian Basin, creating a steady supply of affordable oil and gas for Gulf Coast refiners and exporters.

Steven Winberg, the U.S. Energy Department's assistant secretary for fossil fuels, said the nation has six projects underway in Texas, Louisiana, Georgia and Maryland that will support LNG exports in excess of 10 billion cubic feet per day. Already, the U.S. exports LNG to at least 20 global markets, primarily in Asia.

Winberg said U.S. LNG exports are also ramping up in Europe, notably in Lithuania and Poland. Those countries have historically relied on natural gas from nearby Russia.
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The Europeans would be wise to signup for US LNG shipments to avoid being tied to unreliable Russian suppliers who use gas as an economic weapon.  Both Poland and Lithuania heavy experienced that problem in the past.  In Asia the US has been replacing Middle East suppliers and it has also exported gas to the Middle East.

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