WorldWide Drilling Resource

55 WorldWide Drilling Resource ® MAY 2014 America’s Opportunity to Export LNG Adapted from Information by the U.S. Senate on Energy and Natural Resources U.S. Senator Mary L. Landrieu of Louisiana, and chair of the Senate com- mittee on energy and natural resources, held a hearing entitled Importing Energy, Exporting Jobs - Can it be reversed? to discuss how increasing exports of lique- fied natural gas (LNG) will create thou- sands of high-paying jobs and support U.S. allies abroad. “Thanks to extraordinary and swift advances in technology to locate, cap- ture, and produce natural gas, today this committee will discuss the expanded opportunities to export LNG, the possibil- ities to create high-paying jobs inAmerica, and support our allies in Europe and budding democracies across the world,” Senator Landrieu said. “Nowhere is this more evident than in my home state of Louisiana and all along the Gulf Coast - America’s energy coast! The oil and gas industry supports over 300,000 jobs in Louisiana, and has been a major factor in securing below average unemployment for the last five years.” Accelerating America’s entry into the global natural gas market is a win- win situation. America wins through job creation and economic growth. Customers across Europe win by gaining access to more competitively-priced, clean-burning U.S. natural gas. Edward C. Chow, senior fellow with the energy and national security pro- gram at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, stressed the impor- tance of America’s shale gas boom. “Even be-fore we start exporting liquefied nat- ural gas from the lower 48 states, the American shale gas revolution has already made a significant impact on the global LNG market,” Chow testified. “An indication of the radical change the shale gas revolution caused in the U.S. is Cheniere Energy’s Sabine Pass LNG project. Sabine Pass was completed as a receiving terminal only in 2009, and almost immediately sought to become a bidirectional terminal that can liquefy and export gas as well. It will become the first LNG export terminal in the lower 48 states when it is completed by the end of 2015.” Many believe a U.S. policy allowing unlimited LNG exports would promote competition for companies supplying nat- ural gas to Europe. Those companies would have to lower natural gas prices as it renegotiates its supply contracts. “The dramatic growth in natural gas reserves and production in the United States over the past five years has result- ed in economic growth, relative reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, and greater energy security. Every credible estimate of our energy future suggests we will have substantial exportable surpluses of natural gas for decades to come,” stat- ed Mr. David L. Goldwyn, nonresident senior fellow with the Energy Security Initiative at the Brookings Institution in his testimony. “This bounty could enhance our national power by positioning our nation as a reliable supplier of natural gas to regions of the world that suffer from intimidation from their suppliers or simply the economy-crushing burden of oil-linked prices.” ! " # !