Exporting natural gas could boost U.S. economy, says report

According to a long-awaited report from the Energy Information Administration released on Wednesday—and delayed twice since its planned release earlier this year—the United States could export about 4 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day by 2027, or about 6.6% of the country’s current consumption. Shipping some of the newly abundant American natural gas overseas would benefit the nation’s economy more than keeping it all at home, according to the study, which, The Wall Street Journal reports, “has the potential to reshape the global energy market.” That’s because the endorsement from the EIA could “turn the tide on a politically sensitive issue” and hasten approvals from the Obama administration for a number of planned plants to liquefy natural gas for export. One such plant is the Sabine Pass Liquefaction in Louisiana, which was the first of more than a dozen planned facilities to get Department of Energy approval. Fifteen other projects, which could export as much as 21.5 billion cubic feet of gas per day, are awaiting approval. That amount is roughly one-third of total U.S. production, but analysts doubt more than a handful of the terminals will be built because each costs some $5 billion. Read the full story here.