US on track to be world's largest LNG exporter in next 10 years

Houston Chronicle:

In 2011, Cheniere Energy was a little-known company with big ambitions when it signed an $8 billion contract that would transform the U.S. into an exporter of liquefied natural gas after decades of relying on foreign suppliers.

Five years later, just days before the Houston company shipped its first LNG cargo, another big deal gave a jolt to nascent U.S. industry. Royal Dutch Shell bought Cheniere customer BG Gas for $50 billion, a move that made Shell the world's largest international LNG producer and marketer and allied it with this nation's biggest LNG exporter. Shell remains Cheniere's best customer, buying almost half the production of Cheniere's massive Sabine Pass LNG terminal.

These two events have helped bring the United States to a tipping point, as LNG exports, mostly out of Texas and Louisiana, grow quickly. The Energy Department projects that LNG production capacity will quadruple by the end of 2019, making the nation the largest source of LNG after Qatar and Australia. The International Energy Agency predicts the U.S. could vault to first within a decade.

Situated on more than 1,000 acres of rural swamplands on the Louisiana side of the Texas state border overlooking Port Arthur, Cheniere's Sabine Pass complex recently added its fourth LNG unit and started shipping cargoes this fall, solidifying its position as the world's largest LNG exporting terminal outside of Ras Laffan Industrial City in Qatar.

The expansion comes as Virginia's Dominion Energy prepares this month to become the nation's second LNG exporter, operating from its Cove Point terminal in Maryland. Shell is buying the first Cove Point exports.

Shell is among the world's biggest energy companies increasing their bets on natural gas and LNG as pressure builds around the world to lower emissions of greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide, that contribute to climate change. Natural gas burns more cleanly than coal and oil and is considered by many analysts as the best complement to intermittent wind and solar energy because gas-fired plants can ramp up quickly to fill in production gaps.

"LNG will be a much more important part of the global energy mix going forward," said Steve Hill, executive vice president of Shell Energy overseeing LNG. "The way we reduce our CO2 emissions is by selling cleaner stuff."
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There is more.

The US is now exporting to China, India, and Poland.  It could also get customers in the Middle East because of the fallout by other Persian Gulf countries with Qatar.  Many Eastern European countries like Poland want to reduce dependency on Russia who they see as an unreliable supplier that uses gas sales to punish those it disagrees with.

The Trump administration has been more open to the sell of US energy exports than Obama was, which could speed up the growth of this industry to help meet the objective of making the US a dominant energy supplier.