The U.S. Energy Information Administration in January estimated that the nation's energy companies stand to reap an extra $14 billion to $43 billion in annual revenues if natural gas exports are allowed to rise. The broad variance between those numbers reflects the uncertainty of gas prices, demand for the fuel and competition from abroad, according to the EIA report.
But first, drillers must find a way to get their gas to market.
They have some access to export points such as the Gulf Coast, via existing pipelines and other infrastructure, according to the EIA. Also, Houston-based Cheniere Energy Inc. plans to build a $10 billion liquefied natural gas facility in Louisiana, with a goal of breaking ground this spring if it receives the expected federal approvals. Cheniere estimates the facility would export as much as 1 billion cubic feet of gas per day initially, with room to double in size if conditions warrant expansion.
The likely buyers of that gas will be nations in Asia, including China, the EIA and others predict. They may own the gas even before it gets to the LNG terminal; the CEO of Chesapeake Energy, the largest driller in Ohio, reportedly has been trying to sell billions of dollars of U.S. energy reserves to Asian investors. The company already has sold some of its holdings to foreign investors, and Chesapeake CEO Aubrey McClendon has pledged to sell $17 billion of such assets by the end of 2013.
A Chesapeake spokesman declined to be interviewed for this story. The Bloomberg news service, however, reported that Mr. McClendon is focused on increasing the price of natural gas in the United States, and so are his investors.
“We are presently owned by a group of investors who don't think gas prices will ever go above $4 (per MCF),” Mr. McClendon was quoted as saying in a March 12 story. “I want to be owned by investors who live in a part of the world that believes gas prices will never go below $10.”
By DAN SHINGLER
9:12 am, April 17, 2012
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