8/9/17, US Energy Information
Administration
EIA’s latest Short-Term Energy Outlook projects
that the United States will export more natural gas than it imports in 2017.
The United States has been a net
exporter for three of the past four months and is expected to continue to
export more natural gas than it imports for the rest of 2017 and throughout
2018.
The United States’ status as a net
exporter is expected to continue past 2018 because of growing U.S. natural gas
exports to Mexico, declining pipeline imports from Canada, and increasing
exports of liquefied natural gas (LNG).
The United States is currently the world's largest natural gas producer, having surpassed Russia in 2009. Natural gas production in the
United States increased from 55 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) in 2008 to
72.5 Bcf/d in 2016. Most of this natural gas—about 96% in 2016—is consumed
domestically. Abundant natural gas resources and large production increases
have created opportunities for U.S. natural gas exports.
With a near doubling of U.S. export pipeline capacity to Mexico by
2019, EIA expects U.S. natural gas exports to increase, though they should remain
well below the available pipeline capacity. Mexico’s national energy ministry
(SENER) expects to increase its natural gas use for electric power generation by almost 50% between 2016
and 2020. Mexico's domestic natural gas pipeline network is
undergoing a major expansion, primarily
to accommodate new natural gas pipeline imports from the United States.
In addition, supplies of natural gas out
of Appalachia into the Midwestern states are likely to gradually displace some
pipeline imports from Canada as well as increase U.S. pipeline exports to
Canada from both Michigan and New York. Several new pipeline projects, including the Rover and Nexus Gas
Transmission pipelines, are also being developed to increase takeaway capacity
from the Marcellus and Utica supply regions that span parts of New York, Ohio,
Pennsylvania, and West Virginia into the U.S. Gulf coast, Midwestern states,
and eastern Canada.
EIA expects exports of liquefied natural
gas (LNG) to increase. U.S. liquefaction capacity continues
to expand as five new projects currently under
construction—Cove Point, Cameron, Elba Island, Freeport, and Corpus Christi—come
online in the next three years, increasing total U.S. liquefaction capacity
from 1.4 Bcf/d at the end of 2016 to 9.5 Bcf/d by the end of 2019.
Three liquefaction trains at Sabine
Pass, Louisiana, are currently the only operational liquefaction facilities in
the United States. A fourth train at Sabine Pass is undergoing commissioning
and a fifth train is expected to come online in 2019. Another liquefaction
project at Cove Point, in Maryland’s Chesapeake Bay, is scheduled to come
online later this year.
Based on construction plans, EIA expects
that by 2020 the United States will have the third-largest LNG export capacity
in the world after Australia and Qatar. The latest Short-Term Energy Outlook forecasts
that U.S. LNG exports will reach 4.6 Bcf/d by December 2018 as new liquefaction
trains at Cameron, Freeport, and Elba Island come online. However, actual use
of U.S. LNG export terminals will be affected by the rate of global LNG demand
growth and competition from other global LNG suppliers.
Principal contributors: Victoria
Zaretskaya, Katie Dyl
Comments
Traditionally,
coal, hydro and nuclear production costs were 2 cents / kwh and natural gas was
3 cents / kwh. The installation costs for solar and wind put the cost of these
at 14 cents / kwh.
Fracking
allows the US to increase our access to oil and natural gas. Freezing natural gas allows it to be liquefied
and exported.
The
increasing US exports of oil, natural gas and coal will help us close our trade
deficit and increase US energy related jobs.
Norb
Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader
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