Expert Says LNG Exports Not Causing Spike in U.S. NatGas Prices
As Joe Biden and his inept White House cast about for someone or something to blame for his policies that are causing a spike in energy prices here in the U.S., one of the potential targets is LNG exports. Some lefties in Washington are making noises that if we limit or even cancel LNG exports, that would bring down natural gas prices here at home. According to the Executive Director of the Center for LNG (CLNG), that’s just not true.
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Whew, it’s now reopened for business. It’s been 21 days since Warren Buffett’s Cove Point LNG export facility closed all the way down for annual maintenance (see 
Joe Biden is completely inept. Everyone can see it, whether they publicly admit it or not. He’s blown it. For any given decision he’s made, he’s made the wrong decision 100% of the time. Yesterday we told you about Biden’s preference for OPEC oil over American oil (see 
EQT CEO Toby Rice laid the blame for the developing world energy crisis, particularly Europe’s lack of access to natural gas, at the feet of radical environmentalists. If not for the radicals and their constant frivolous lawsuits blocking pipelines and LNG export facilities, such infrastructure would already have been built and would be providing abundant, cheap, clean-burning Marcellus/Utica natural gas to other regions of the U.S. and to Europe.
Remember back in May 2019 (the good old days, prior to hyperinflation, gasoline prices through the roof, electric and natgas prices through the roof) when Rick Perry (an actual, thinking adult) was Secretary of Energy and he and others at DOE referred to LNG exports as “molecules of U.S. freedom”? The Democrat media (i.e. mainstream media) went berserk. The arrogant “reporters” at the New York Times, Washington Post, Slate, NBC, CBS, ABC, et al ad nauseum pilloried and guffawed and maligned and ridiculed Perry and DOE for referring to U.S. LNG exports as “freedom gas” and “molecules of freedom” (
Comrade Joe Biden has painted himself into a corner. As Biden entered office, the United States of America was, after more than 50 years, energy independent. Upon seizing power, Biden canceled the Keystone XL pipeline from Canada and illegally banned federal oil and gas leasing. Now we have an oil and gas shortage and Biden is begging OPEC+ to increase production. What a dunce. This is how inept socialists are. So what can Biden do to get himself out of the corner he’s painted himself (and us) into?
Although the U.S. is a big and getting bigger exporter of natural gas, it’s not the biggest exporter of natgas in the world. The distinction of being the biggest exporter of natgas in the world goes to Qatar. Saad al-Kaabi, Qatar’s Energy Minister and CEO of Qatar Petroleum, said yesterday natural gas prices have reached “unhealthy levels” for both producers and consumers. Asia’s spot LNG prices soared by 40% on Wednesday as a cargo for delivery into North Asia in November was priced as much as $56/MMBtu–a record high that beat the previous record from last week of $34.52/MMBtu.
Prices for natural gas along the U.S. Gulf Coast may not, on the surface, have much to do with the Marcellus/Utica–but they do. The price gas is selling for along the Gulf Coast is important because M-U molecules flow to that region to feed petrochemical plants and (more importantly) LNG export facilities. S&P is reporting even though there’s been a big storage build along the Gulf Coast for natural gas, prices remain extremely high in the region. Why? LNG exports…
The weather turning a bit cooler along with a three-week planned maintenance outage at the Cove Point LNG plant in Maryland is causing the spot price for natural gas in the Marcellus and Utica to fall precipitously. Of course the price recently, over the past few weeks, rose precipitously–so a sudden fall is not all that unusual. How much has the price fallen and how far will it go down?
While natural gas prices have always floated up and down, lately we’ve seen a rapid run-up in the NYMEX futures price that hit a seven-year high last week (see 
Here we go again. Although we understand self-interest and wanting to protect one’s profit margin, we continue to be distressed that some of the biggest chemical companies in the world (meaning in the U.S.) are actively trying to block LNG exports. Why? They want the natural gas they buy (in very large quantities) to be as cheap as possible. In April 2017, Big Chemical–companies like Dow Corning, BASF, Eastman Chemical and others–via their trade association Industrial Energy Consumers of America (IECA), launched an effort to try and persuade Energy Secretary Rick Perry and the Trump Administration to create barriers to exports of natural gas (see