Posted on 04/11/2014 9:38:38 AM PDT by Rusty0604
Despite the ongoing propoganda machine's push for a bailout plan to 'liberate Europe from Gazprom's claws', The FT reports that the head of Cheniere Energy, which is due to become the US’s first new natural gas exporter next year, said the ability of US energy to save Europe from its dependence on Russian supplies had been overstated. Simply put, as Putin knows all too well (but Obama and his merry men in the mainstream media seem destined to perpetuate), Cheniere's CEO blasts "It’s flattering to be talked about like this, but it’s all nonsense. It’s so much nonsense that I can’t believe anybody really believes it."
As The FT reports,
Charif Souki, Cheniere’s chief executive, said that the idea of his company’s exports alone liberating Europe from Russia’s Gazprom was “nonsense” and that only six to eight of 20-plus proposed rival export projects were “real”.
...
The east-west stand-off over Ukraine has sparked a political debate over whether the US should loosen its energy export restrictions so Europeans can buy liquefied natural gas, or LNG, from America’s shale energy boom.
Asked if Cheniere’s terminal could rescue eastern European countries from their dependence on Russia, Mr Souki said: “It’s flattering to be talked about like this, but it’s all nonsense. It’s so much nonsense that I can’t believe anybody really believes it.”
The US is working to increase the number of trade agreements to enable any LNG exports but...
Mr Souki said the only ones he considered to be real were the six to eight that had started a separate process – which he said entailed $100m in costs – of gaining permits from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, or Ferc, which assesses environmental and safety standards.
“Until somebody tells me they’re willing to spend $100m, I don’t consider them real,” he said.
And that's not happening anytime soon in a cash strapped and bureaucratically constrained Europe. Furthermore, prices are likely to rise because not even Obam acan mandate where the free market moves its product...
Mr Souki said he had no control over where his customers would sell that LNG. “I’m pretty sure they will be opportunistic and, if they need it for their home market, they will take it for their own markets and, if they don’t need it, it will go somewhere else.”
Or can he.
The actual solution for European countries is for them to find their own sources of gas, which in most of them are already below their feet. Poland, Ukraine, and UK, for instance, have extensive shale gas fields.
They’re not really dependent on Gazprom. Gas is fungible and can be bought from any producer in the world. Gazprom just provides the cheapest gas. They are free to pay higher prices from other sources, and will undoubtedly do so if they truly fear a Russian invasion. As of now, they are betting that Russian territorial ambitions are confined to Ukraine.
North American LNG Import /Export Terminals
Approved
https://www.ferc.gov/industries/gas/indus-act/lng/lng-approved.pdf
Proposed
https://www.ferc.gov/industries/gas/indus-act/lng/lng-export-proposed.pdf
Potential
https://www.ferc.gov/industries/gas/indus-act/lng/lng-export-potential.pdf
“Gas is fungible and can be bought from any producer in the world.”
The problem is transport.
It takes years to get the infrastructure in place, and LNG tankers are not a solution.
As Germany has learned, even building gas storage is a process that can take a decade or more, due to the inane enviro laws they have saddled themselves with.
On a related topic....
Which means that we headed for a disaster as the Democrats and the EPA slowly kill off coal and nat gas from fracking.
It is very possible that we will be left with only solar and wind to charge our electric cars. Good luck with that.
That’s very true. They also give in to the greenies on everything. If they had to pay market prices for energy and also had to pay for their defense instead of the subsidy from U.S., they might have to decrease their socialist redistribution policies.
Ya. IMHO, poor planning has put them in a bind. It takes years to develop those sources.
Much like our attitudes towards energy here in the States. And like Europe, we may be stuck in a bind in a few years and be beholden to our enemies.
Maybe we can treat Europe’s situation as a teaching moment. Then again, maybe not.
They could also use coal, which they have plenty of. But they're hell-bent on strangling their economies.
Politicians and bureaucrats have a little (very) education and think they can sit at a desk and make mandates and it happens. No thought about logistics or technicalities.
Why are we restricting our own sales on anything in an economic downturn?
Because our politicians cannot allow the free market to operate what with the greedy earth warming corporations.
“As of now, they are betting that Russian territorial ambitions are confined to Ukraine.”
I understand Putin has said that “The Ukraine is my last territorial ambition.”
Exactly.
Only I would qualify your statement to >Democrat< politicians and bureaucrats as many haven’t held a job in the private sector and don’t understand how a business operates.
Worst of all, their whole political life has been spent demonizing the businesses that they rely on for a stable economy and job growth and in the more dire instances help our allies out. In this example: “Big Oil.”
That was a good one. And a walk down memory lane. More of the same:
Chamberlain landed at Heston Aerodrome on 30 September 1938, and spoke to the crowds there:
The settlement of the Czechoslovakian problem, which has now been achieved is, in my view, only the prelude to a larger settlement in which all Europe may find peace. This morning I had another talk with the German Chancellor, Herr Hitler, and here is the paper which bears his name upon it as well as mine. Some of you, perhaps, have already heard what it contains but I would just like to read it to you: ' ... We regard the agreement signed last night and the Anglo-German Naval Agreement as symbolic of the desire of our two peoples never to go to war with one another again.'[3]
Later that day he stood outside 10 Downing Street and again read from the document and concluded:
My good friends, for the second time in our history, a British Prime Minister has returned from Germany bringing peace with honour. I believe it is peace for our time. We thank you from the bottom of our hearts. Go home and get a nice quiet sleep.[3]
You are right. It does take years to develop such resources. But then it will also take years to provide the infrastructure needed for US exports of LNG to make much of a difference.
Which is why we should be very concerned.
The ignorant actions of today, such as killing off coal, will have negative consequences 10 years from now and it will be too late to do anything about it.
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