Houston: US Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz revealed that there is “a good chance” the country could be exporting liquefied natural gas (LNG) from terminals other than in Alaska by next year.
And within a decade he sees the US challenging world leader Qatar as a major LNG exporter. Transportation of LNG could be a boom area for specialised storage vessels.
For now a ConocoPhillips terminal on Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula is America’s only export terminal for LNG.
But the plan is for more export terminals in the 48 contiguous states. Some have been approved for construction in Texas, Louisiana and Maryland while other potential ones would be expansions of existing import facilities.
LNG is more green-friendly than most other fossil fuels and, although relatively costly to produce, it is cheap to transport.
Moniz also said that the oil industry has not yet made a compelling case for relaxing decades-old restrictions on US crude exports, which has been under discussion in recent days.
