The US Department of Energy has approved an application by ConocoPhillips to ship the equivalent of 40 Bcf of natural gas as liquefied natural gas over a two-year period from its plant on the Kenai Peninsula south of Anchorage to countries which have free trade agreements with the US. The approval, however, is seen largely as a technicality since ConocoPhillips is expected to target Japan, a country which does not have a free trade agreement with the US, for the LNG from the Alaskan facility. A separate application from ConocoPhillips to ship to non-FTA countries, such as Japan, is still pending before DOE. LNG market sources said that while the approval was promising, it would take an approval for exports to non-FTA economies like Japan to have an impact on pricing. However, market participants noted that South Korea was an FTA partner, and could […]