Record US Exports of Natural Gas Equals Opportunity for Alaska

December 10, 2020

This week, the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) announced its short-term energy outlook.  One item of note related to the record exports for liquified natural gas (LNG) in November.  Per the outlook:

“EIA estimates that the United States exported 9.4 Bcf/d of LNG in November—the most for any month on record. International spot and forward LNG prices continued to increase in late November, supported by reduced global LNG supply because of outages at LNG export plants in several countries and reported congestion at the Panama Canal, which affected westbound U.S. LNG exports to Asia. EIA expects LNG demand to continue increasing. The primary drivers of this increase are forecasts of colder-than-normal winter weather in Northern Asia and Europe and coal plant closures in South Korea that could increase demand for natural gas for power generation. EIA forecasts that U.S. LNG exports will exceed 9.5 Bcf/d from December through February and will average 8.5 Bcf/d in 2021, a 30% increase from 2020.”

Regardless of what those pushing a “just transition” away from traditional fuel sources say, natural gas is a relatively clean power source, and isn’t going away anytime soon. 

With winter weather gripping the Northern Hemisphere across the globe, EIA’s outlook for additional LNG demand should be a good sign for US LNG export opportunities, including Alaska’s Qilak LNG project.  Power The Future has been a supporter of the jobs and prospects for Qilak since it was first announced.  We look forward to hearing more about Qilak and other US job-creating plans that will be driven by increased LNG demand and export opportunities.