US LNG – coming soon to a place near you!

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US LNG – coming soon to a place near you!

A stampede to export cheap US shale gas in the form of LNG will shake up gas markets around the world. In Europe, it will increase pressure on the big pipeline gas suppliers, Russia in particular, to re-think how they price their gas, or risk losing market share. The gas market will never be the same again.

Energy journalist Alex Forbes is on to it again. He reported for European Energy Review very early on the US shale gas revolution. Now he has dug into what we may call “the Sequel”: the US LNG (liquefied natural gas) export stampede.

In an in-depth analysis written for EER, Alex takes stock of what he calls “the biggest U-turn in energy history”. Not so long ago, the US was expected to become the world’s largest importer of LNG. Now, thanks to the shale gas revolution, US energy companies are lining up to start exporting LNG to global markets.

Some of the infrastructure already exists: the now mostly-idle regasification terminals built in a burst of enthusiasm during the first half of the 2000s can be converted relatively cheaply into liquefaction facilities. The gas is there too: already 16 applications have been filed with the US Department of Energy for export licences. If all these projects came to fruition, an astonishing 245 billion cubic metres per year (Bcm/year) of gas, half of the total consumption in the EU, would become available to the market. This won’t happen, but, as Alex’s calculations show, the numbers will be large enough anyhow to shake up the global gas market: he concludes that the US is almost certainly on its way to becoming the number three LNG exporter after Qatar and Australia by the end of this decade.

There is one big “if”: the US government will have to give the go-ahead for cheap US gas to be exported, which will not be an easy decision. Industry in the US would like to keep the competitive advantage of cheap gas over its international competitors. On the other hand, for the government to limit LNG exports would be seen world-wide as a betrayal in the American faith in free trade and free markets. A decision is not expected until next year.

The effects of large-scale US LNG exports would be profound in all the major gas-consuming regions of the world, including, of course, Europe.

Gas demand in Europe has been falling, partly because cheap coal is coming from the US, where power generators are switching from coal to even cheaper shale gas. So we have the irony that greenhouse gas emissions in the US are falling, despite its lack of climate policy, whereas in Europe, where climate policy is an obsession, greenhouse gas emissions are rising. LNG with a price linked to US hub prices would help to increase the attractiveness of gas in Europe, even allowing for the costs of liquefaction and transportation.

There are profound implications too for how pipeline gas is priced in Europe. LNG backed out of the US during the early years of the unconventional gas revolution did much to reduce the dominance of oil-indexed pricing in long-term contracts for gas from Russia, Algeria and Norway, especially in north-west Europe where trading hubs are becoming increasingly liquid. A flood of new LNG from gas produced in the US will hasten this transition, increasing the pressure on Europe’s big pipeline gas suppliers to re-think how gas is priced, or face losing market share.

Come to think of it, isn’t there a US geostrategic interest involved here as well? The US government has long been busy in the background supporting the construction of gas and oil pipelines from non-Russian suppliers in Central Asia and the Caucasus to Europe, for political reasons. Washington could now reach the same result by allowing LNG exports from the US. Wouldn’t that be much simpler?

If you are interested in the future of European energy markets, don’t miss Alex’s article.

The US LNG export stampede: another gas revolution in the making

| By Alex Forbes

Thanks to the shale gas revolution, the United States – until recently expected to become the world’s largest importer of liquefied natural gas (LNG) – is on its way to becoming one of the world’s largest LNG exporters, unless the US government intervenes to limit exports of cheap gas to its industrial competitors. But what we are seeing is not just another large wave of LNG supply of the kind we have seen from Qatar and are now witnessing from Australia. This new wave promises – or threatens, depending on your point of view – profound changes in the way that natural gas is traded and priced in markets across the world.

 

The United States is on its way to becoming one of the world’s largest LNG exporters
(c) Tribune

 

It promises to be the biggest U-turn in energy history. During the first half of the 2000s, billions of dollars were spent by developers of LNG regasification facilities as the United States resigned itself to a future of steadily declining natural gas production and turned to LNG imports to fill a looming supply-demand gap. Not only that: in countries around the world, developers of natural gas liquefaction projects were investing billions of dollars to be able to meet projected demand for LNG in the US. In Qatar, Yemen, Angola and elsewhere, the US was looking an increasingly attractive market.

 

Read the full article here

 

To read more about some of the great transformations that are changing the face of European and global gas markets, check out these articles on EER:

 

Shell’s Pearl proves its worth, but it’s early days yet for gas-to-liquids

Golden Age of Gas comes at a price

The exciting future of LNG – and how it will transform the global gas market

The birth of a European gas infrastructure market

The four great challenges for the European gas market