Global LNG Demand is Going Down – What Does it Mean for the U.S.?

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if you build it will they comeMDN editor Jim Willis still remembers the thunderclap of understanding he experienced while attending the Platts Global Energy Outlook Forum in New York City in December of 2013 (see Energy Industry Leaders Gather at Platts Forum in NYC). As we wrote at the time: “The one thing Jim learned (honest admission) is how much he doesn’t know about the wider energy industry. We who toil away in the shale gas and oil industry are, according to those at the Forum, a bit myopic. I think that’s probably true. Our heads are down and we’re fighting crazies every day and forget to look up and take stock of how our piece of the energy puzzle fits with the rest of the puzzle. The Forum helped provide some of that perspective for Jim.” In many ways that statement remains true–that the oil and gas industry is working hard and treading water and doesn’t stop to consider the global interconnection between not only oil and gas, but all energy sources. We can produce lots of gas in the U.S., but where and how will it get used? With all due respect to the great actor Kevin Costner, if you build it, they don’t necessarily come! As in, if we continue to pump out enormous quantities of natural gas and think that exports will save the day–that other countries will soak up our extra capacity–well, it’s a nice thought, but not necessarily true. Case in point: Platts is out with a sobering assessment of LNG going to Japan and Korea (and even China)–and the picture is not pretty for exporters here in the U.S….

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