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US DOE OKs FTA application for ConocoPhillips' Alaska LNG project

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 […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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US DOE OKs FTA application for ConocoPhillips’ Alaska LNG project

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 […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Australia’s LNG exports face competition from U.S.

The United States is emerging as a major competitor to Australia’s gas export market, says a former U.S. Department of Energy official. Speaking at the Australian Domestic Gas conference Wednesday in Sydney, Randa Fahmy Hudome, who was appointed by President George W. Bush to serve as the U.S. associate deputy secretary of energy, said the United States viewed Asia as its biggest market and was increasing liquefied natural gas export approvals to fill future demand from that region, The Australian newspaper reports. Hudome now heads up a Washington, D.C.-based government relations and strategic consulting firm she launched in 2003. "In the U.S. we see the demand in Asia as the biggest bite of the apple for us. We intend to compete in that market," she said. Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Energy conditionally authorized approved Cameron LNG, LLC to export domestically produced […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Australia's LNG exports face competition from U.S.

The United States is emerging as a major competitor to Australia’s gas export market, says a former U.S. Department of Energy official. Speaking at the Australian Domestic Gas conference Wednesday in Sydney, Randa Fahmy Hudome, who was appointed by President George W. Bush to serve as the U.S. associate deputy secretary of energy, said the United States viewed Asia as its biggest market and was increasing liquefied natural gas export approvals to fill future demand from that region, The Australian newspaper reports. Hudome now heads up a Washington, D.C.-based government relations and strategic consulting firm she launched in 2003. "In the U.S. we see the demand in Asia as the biggest bite of the apple for us. We intend to compete in that market," she said. Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Energy conditionally authorized approved Cameron LNG, LLC to export domestically produced […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Pakistan frustrated with gas import options

Pakistan’s former petroleum secretary expressed doubts about gas supplies from neighbors but the government said Iranian negotiations could bring relief. Gulfraz Ahmad told delegates at an energy forum in Islamabad the U.S. government’s nuclear energy assistance to India partly derailed a trilateral gas pipeline from Iran, the Pakistani newspaper Express Tribune reported Friday "After withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan , I fear Washington will again be opposing TAPI pipeline following a shift in its policies," he was quoted as saying. TAPI refers to the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India natural gas pipeline, which the United States has backed in favor of the Iranian gas pipeline. Foreign Office spokeswoman Tasnim Alsama was quoted by rival newspaper the Nation, however, as saying waning sanctions pressure on Iran could breathe new life into that pipeline option. "We hope that the process [nuclear negotiations with Iran] would lead to successful settling […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Will Natural Gas Fuel America’s Big Trucks? Shell Treads Carefully

Shell is tapping the brakes on plans to push natural gas as a fuel for the trucking industry. The company confirmed it will not build a previously announced plant 20 miles west of Calgary that would turn natural gas into liquid form, known as LNG, for use in heavy duty trucks. Shell still plans to build out a network of LNG fueling stations along a 900-mile stretch between Alberta and Canada’s Pacific Coast. But those LNG service stations, which will be operated by Pilot Flying J, will sell natural gas fuel created by a company other than Shell. “We are definitely still interested, but it’s an emerging market so Shell has to take a balanced approach to these developments,” Shell spokeswoman Destin Singleton said. So far Shell has not changed plans for two other LNG fuel plants – one in Geismar, La. and one in […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Shale Brings High Hopes In Mississippi, Louisiana

Residents living above an oil-rich shale formation that stretches across southwest Mississippi and Louisiana have been waiting on a boom for years. A steady trickle of drilling is already boosting the rural region’s economy, and spending by two oil companies could make 2014 the year that many other locals finally cash in on the oil far beneath their feet. Already, Max Lawson has spent hours watching the round-the-clock work of shoving pipe into the ground in his back pasture. The process began two years ago when Encana Corp. built a big gravel pad, but didn’t take off until late last year when a convoy of 200 trucks carted in a drilling rig and other equipment to bore into the earth looking for oil. "They call it the Gillsburg Christmas tree," he said while standing near the brightly lit rig. "It looks like a little […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Surge in U.S. Natural Gas Prices Deflates Hopes in Asia

The near doubling of U.S. natural gas prices this winter has damped Asian hopes of buying American gas on the cheap when exports begin in a couple of years. Winter storms and bitter cold in recent weeks boosted demand in the U.S. Prices have eased recently , but had surged to more than $6 per million British thermal units this month from around $3.70 per mBtu in late November. Although seasonal, this price surge has confirmed worries by some Asian gas buyers that much-hyped U.S. gas exports, when they begin, won’t be available at prices as low as previously expected. Asian power producers may now be reassessing the share of U.S. gas in their future energy mix, and reconsidering calls for the benchmarking of regional gas prices against the volatile U.S. gas market. "I think a lot of people were thinking that U.S. LNG export volumes were a no-brainer, […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Surge in U.S. Natural Gas Prices Deflates Hopes in Asia

The near doubling of U.S. natural gas prices this winter has damped Asian hopes of buying American gas on the cheap when exports begin in a couple of years. Winter storms and bitter cold in recent weeks boosted demand in the U.S. Prices have eased recently , but had surged to more than $6 per million British thermal units this month from around $3.70 per mBtu in late November. Although seasonal, this price surge has confirmed worries by some Asian gas buyers that much-hyped U.S. gas exports, when they begin, won’t be available at prices as low as previously expected. Asian power producers may now be reassessing the share of U.S. gas in their future energy mix, and reconsidering calls for the benchmarking of regional gas prices against the volatile U.S. gas market. "I think a lot of people were thinking that U.S. LNG export volumes were a no-brainer, […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Pennsylvania fracking-related jobs numbers questioned

Facing a daunting re-election year, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett has been touting his all-out support for natural gas drilling as a job creator in his state. But economists and environmentalists are questioning his claim that the industry props up more than 200,000 Pennsylvania jobs. They say that the governor’s administration has greatly inflated the number and that it may be getting lower every day. A new analysis by The Allentown Morning Call  newspaper and published Monday indicates that growth in the industries associated with drilling in the Marcellus Shale — one of the country’s main areas for hydraulic fracturing, or fracking — fell by 29 percent from 2010 to 2013. There are now just under 30,000 that can directly be linked to the Marcellus. Industry supporters say that the decline is a temporary fluctuation and that ancillary jobs created and supported by shale gas development — including ones in […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple