Free Republic

The boom in American natural-gas production during the past several years, and the consequent crash of domestic natural-gas prices, has caused many to call for the liberation of U.S. natural-gas exports. The ongoing Russian invasion of the Crimea and threat to the rest of Ukraine has added still greater urgency to these calls, as the need take action to weaken Russian President Vladimir Putin’s natural-gas stranglehold over Europe has become vital. Despite these economic and national security imperatives, there are still those who maintain that allowing American natural-gas producers to export their product would damage the national interest. According to...

The boom in American natural-gas production during the past several years, and the consequent crash of domestic natural-gas prices, has caused many to call for the liberation of U.S. natural-gas exports. The ongoing Russian invasion of the Crimea and threat to the rest of Ukraine has added still greater urgency to these calls, as the need take action to weaken Russian President Vladimir Putin’s natural-gas stranglehold over Europe has become vital. Despite these economic and national security imperatives, there are still those who maintain that allowing American natural-gas producers to export their product would damage the national interest. According to...

At a noisy, bustling shipyard 20 miles south of Istanbul, the world’s second-ever tugboat powered by liquefied natural gas sits at the end of a pier, awaiting its first water trial. “Then it’s off to Norway,” said with no little pride Ruchan Civgin, the contracts manager at Sanmar Shipyard, of the 115-foot vessel. “The first boat left in January.” Further south along the Marmara Sea coast, another shipbuilder is rolling out LNG-powered fish-feed vessels, used to transport feed for fish farms, for international markets. These ships may be the vanguard of a global boom in LNG-powered shipping, produced by the...

On Thursday ENI’s [Italian oil/gas] chief executive, Paolo Scaroni, was in Washington to meet with Obama administration officials at the State Department and National Security Council to discuss natural gas, Russia and Ukraine. "What is relevant is that this dependency is going to go up and not down because domestic European production [including North Africa] is going down." Scaroni takes a dim view of American LNG as a means to liberate Europe from Russian gas, in part because he says that transporting LNG from the United States to Europe is expensive, Russian gas production costs are very low and Russia...

About the only good coming out of ridiculous tit-for-tat sanctions on Russia is the possibility of revised US energy policy, and Lithuania is pleading for it. The BBC reports Lithuania Pleads for US Gas Exports to Counter Russia Lithuania's energy minister has called on the US Senate to speed up the export of natural gas to Europe. Jaroslav Neverovic said that Lithuania was being forced to pay a "political price" for being entirely dependent on Russian gas supplies. In his statement to a US Senate committee, Mr Neverovic urged members to do everything within their power to release natural...

The Energy Department gave conditional approval on Monday to an Oregon-based facility to export liquefied natural gas, in a move hailed by the energy industry and congressional lawmakers who want the U.S. to step up gas exports to counter Russian influence. "Given the situation in Ukraine, this license sends a positive signal to our allies and to energy markets that the United States is ready to join the growing global gas trade," Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, said in a statement. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle for weeks have been pressing the Obama administration to expedite permits for natural...

Before today, the Obama administration had only approved six of the more than two dozen pending permit applications for natural gas export terminals for countries with which we do not already have free-trade agreements. In just the past few months, however, the Obama administration has tentatively signaled that they are finally ready to really recognize the boon the recent shale gas bonanza has been for boosting the economy as well as consider the potentially helpful long-term geopolitical benefits that could be reaped from allowing our domestically produced oil-and-gas to flow more freely into the world market — and even of...

Texans increased their use of natural gas to fuel cars and trucks in 2013, but reduced its use to power lights and appliances, according to new federal data. Natural gas used for vehicle fuel in Texas jumped by more than 16 percent between 2012 and 2013, data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration show. Meanwhile, less electricity was generated from gas in 2013, down by nearly 7 percent. That reversed a trend seen in recent years as utilities shifted from coal-fired to natural gas-fired power plants to take advantage of low-cost natural gas, with its price in the Untied States...

Right on cue, as it becomes obvious that Europe needs to be less dependent on Russian gas and oil, environmental groups here in the US have begun stepping up presure on President Obama to reject building the infrastructure necessary to help realize that strategic need. A coalition of environmental groups is calling on the administration to reject permits that would build Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) export terminals. Environmental groups called on President Obama Tuesday to reject pending applications to build liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminals, citing the negative impacts from natural gas throughout its life cycle.The pressure from green...

The US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has issued a draft environmental impact statement (EIS) on Freeport LNG’s Phase II modification and liquefaction projects. FERC concluded that “construction and operation of the projects would result in adverse impacts on certain resources and nearby communities.” FERC said, “We have identified that there would be significant and unavoidable impacts on residents of the town of Quintana due to construction noise and construction traffic if the projects are approved by the commission.” The commission added, “However, other adverse impacts would be reduced to less-than-significant levels with the implementation of Freeport LNG’s mitigation measures and...

How specifically should the United States react to Russia’s Ukrainian intervention? The owner of one Knoxville, Tennessee liquor store has weighed in by having a fire sale on Russian vodka, which he won’t re-import until Moscow “gets its act together.” Former U.S. Representative and Republican (and Libertarian) presidential contender Ron Paul seems to have the opposite attitude, and thinks any sanctions against Russia by Washington would be “criminal” acts intended to provoke a war. Loosening restrictions on American exports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) rests somewhere in between these two approaches and has been advocated by a cast as diverse...

Geopolitics: Four central European nations have appealed to the U.S. to increase natural gas exports should Russia cut off its supply to Ukraine. We are the superpower of energy. Time to give Vladimir Putin some gas pains. Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic sent a letter Friday to House Speaker John Boehner, with a similar letter expected to be sent to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, asking the U.S. to expedite approval of natural-gas export applications. These nations believe a steady gas supply is key to the region's economic and geopolitical stability. Putin's Russia has used its energy resources...

The hand-wringing over what to do to help Ukraine has had a very positive impact on the U.S. oil and gas industry. Politicians like Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) are seizing on the crisis to call for a lifting of the ban on U.S. oil exports — the better to counterbalance Russia’s petro-influence. While the Wall Street Journal this morning wrote that western politicians are working on a variety of options to help “loosen Russia’s energy stranglehold on Ukraine” including “larger exports of U.S.-made natural gas.” Nevermind that the U.S. currently exports no natural gas in the form of LNG because...

U.S. tankers carrying cheap natural gas will ride a massive wave of demand to Chinese shores in coming years, but they won’t unshackle the high price Asia pays in the global gas trade from oil indexes, energy executives said Wednesday. And analysts predicting wholesale changes in global LNG markets – such as widespread adoption of cheaper pricing and more flexible supply contract terms – are likely to be disappointed, even after the advent of bargain-priced American liquefied gas exports, BG Group CEO Chris Finlayson said during a panel on the third day of the massive IHS CERAWeek energy conference in...

Chevron Corp. Chairman and CEO John Watson said the United States should get on with exporting oil and liquefied natural gas, saying that U.S. consumers and allies of the United States would benefit. “The debate over the benefits of free trade was won a long time ago,” Watson told attendees at the IHS CERAWeek conference Tuesday in Houston, noting the role that free trade has played in facilitating economic growth. The benefits of export and free trade pose a “very straightforward, economic argument for consumers and the nation,” Watson commented. While the controversy over exports of liquefied natural gas (LNG)...

A prescient House Energy and Commerce Committee report released last month, just in time for Russia's invasion of Ukraine, suggested that "by becoming a natural gas exporter, the U.S. can supplant the influence of other exporters like Russia and Iran while strengthening ties with our allies and trading partners around the world." President Obama does not want to use military force to counteract Russia. His 2015 Budget, due out this week, will shrink the military still further. But he has another weapon at his disposal, liquid natural gas exports. Congress and the president should without delay pass laws to make...

Like many conflicts before it, the current battle brewing between Russia and Ukraine has a strong energy component. Russia has a history of using its energy supplies as a control mechanism—such as the 2006 and 2009 gas wars when it cut natural gas supplies in the midst of winter and left many European nations, which rely on Russian natural gas that is shipped through Ukraine, without energy. The supply disruptions were due to “disputes over politics, price, and late payments,” says the Washington Post. Back in November, before the current conflict erupted, Reuters reported: “Ukraine has for years been a...

The number of light-duty vehicles running on natural gas will more than double over the next decade to 39.8 million traveling on roads worldwide, according to a new report by research firm Navigant. Despite the rapid growth, natural gas will continue to have a modest market share compared to gasoline and diesel in 2023, fueling just 2.6 percent of the cars and light-duty trucks on the road, Navigant projects. A significant number of natural gas vehicles are already on the road in Brazil, Pakistan, Argentina and India, the report notes. But popularity is growing in North America, as well, driven...

Companies developing multibillion-dollar Gulf Coast plants to export cheap domestic natural gas or make things with it are encountering a harsh reality: There aren’t enough skilled hands to do all that building. “It causes a big concern about what’s going to actually happen when it comes to fulfilling these jobs,” says Michael Bergen, executive vice president of Industrial Info Resources, a Sugar Land-based market research firm. It projects that companies ?will invest more than $64 billion to build at least seven liquefied natural gas facilities along the Gulf Coast in the coming years. And if demand for labor drives up...

Natural gas has become the fuel of choice for several large companies with vehicle fleets. Now, smaller firms are beginning to catch on to the trend, too. With a little nudging, companies that don’t have their own refueling stations are finding ways to start moving their goods and workers on natural gas. “The fact that it’s $2 a gallon cheaper makes it a no-brainer,” said Mike Little, director of transportation for Bryan-based Mid South Baking, which delivers buns and other products to quick-serve restaurants across the South. On an energy equivalent bases, diesel costs around $3.65 per gallon in Houston...