In his keynote presentation to the Louisiana Gulf Coast Oil Exposition in Lafayette on Tuesday, Chesapeake Energy President and CEO Doug Lawler said the low prices that have been hampering the industry this year could very well extend throughout next year as well.
As The Advertiser reports, Lawler said the price for a barrel of oil may endure at an average of $50 through next year, with natural gas prices holding in the $2.50 to $3.50 range. He said enormous global reserves in oil may keep prices suppressed until the reserves melt away, but added consumer demand may pick up in China. The country is currently adding about 13 million vehicles and motorcycles to its roads each year, he said.
“China is going to go crazy with consumption,” he said. “The question is when.”
Lawler’s was one of several presenters on Tuesday at the expo, which wraps up today. Jason French, director of government and public affairs for Cheniere Energy, provided an update on Cheniere’s investments in Louisiana. The company’s 1,000-acre LNG development at Sabine Pass in Cameron Parish is scheduled to export its first liquefied natural gas shipment in January.
Because supply exceeds natural gas demand in the U.S., he said, exporting LNG globally makes good sense for the company, which is spending some $20 billion at the site.
“It’s an amazing construction site,” he said. “It looks like a small city,” with some 4,000 construction workers.
The $20 billion investment, he said, is equivalent to building 30 Superdomes in Cameron Parish. With its developments in Louisiana and at Corpus Christi, Texas, French said, Cheniere is building the equivalent of 60 Superdomes on the Gulf Coast.
A delegation from Mexico was among two international presenters on Tuesday. Three speakers discussed reforms in the oil and gas industry in that country, where PEMEX, a state-owned company, has enjoyed a monopoly since 1938, when Mexico nationalized U.S. and Anglo-Dutch companies to form PEMEX.
