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Demand for liquefied natural gas has been flat recently, but liquefaction/LNG export capacity is on the rise. The resulting supply/demand imbalance along with the crash in crude oil prices has sent LNG prices to unexpectedly low levels, and raises questions about the competitiveness of all the new Australian and U.S. projects coming online in 2016-20. Today, we continue our examination of the fast-changing international market for LNG with a look at the new capacity being added to an already saturated LNG market, and how U.S. LNG exporters might fare in a hyper-competitive world.

European natural gas consumers would welcome the addition of low-cost liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the U.S. to their gas-supply mix. For one thing, they want to reduce their reliance on Russia and other potentially sketchy sources of pipeline gas. For another, they want to weaken the link between oil and gas pricing—something U.S.-sourced LNG would help them do. What would it take for the U.S. to become one of Europe’s primary gas suppliers, and what would that mean for U.S. gas producers and LNG exporters? Today we continue our examination of the international LNG market with a look at what’s driving European curiosity about U.S. LNG.

Asian consumers of liquefied natural gas (LNG) hope to use the current supply glut—and the start-up of U.S. LNG export facilities--to their long-term advantage. Their very understandable goal is to up-end the old market structure, which for years has had them paying far more for LNG than their Western European counterparts. How will the coming revolution affect U.S. natural gas producers and the next round of U.S. LNG export projects? Today, we continue our review of the fast-changing global market for LNG with a look at a new set of Asian LNG buyers and at the region’s fast-changing supply/demand dynamics.

Exporting large volumes of Western Canadian gas as liquefied natural gas (LNG) would help resolve the region’s growing gas glut. The government of British Columbia has set a goal of having three major LNG export facilities in operation by 2020, and already is counting the money it expects to make in LNG-related taxes. But while more than a dozen liquefaction/export projects are under development in BC, none of them is a sure thing yet, and LNG sales and purchase agreements with utilities and others in the Asia/Pacific region have been slow in coming. Today we begin a series that considers whether our northern neighbor’s chance to supply gas to Japan, China, and South Korea may be Slip Sliding Away.