U.S. Energy Secretary Discusses LNG Exports To Saudi Arabia

U.S. Secretary of Energy Rick Perry has discussed possible U.S. exports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) with Saudi Arabia in his meetings with top Saudi officials earlier this week, Secretary Perry said at an energy conference in Abu Dhabi, the UAE, on Wednesday.  

Secretary Perry was taking part in the Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum in Abu Dhabi. Before visiting the UAE, Secretary Perry was in Saudi Arabia, where he discussed energy topics with Saudi Arabia’s Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih.

Secretary Perry and al-Falih signed on Monday a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to establish “a framework for mutually beneficial cooperation in the area of clean fossil fuels and carbon management.”

In the UAE, the U.S. and the hosts also discussed U.S. LNG exports to the UAE, The National reported on Wednesday.

According to data by the U.S. Department of Energy, between February 2016, when the U.S. started exporting LNG, and September 2017, a total of 26 countries received U.S. LNG, including 8 cargos to Kuwait and 5 cargos to the UAE.

Earlier this year, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said that thanks to the remarkable growth in shale production, the U.S.—the world’s top gas consumer and producer—will account for 40 percent of the extra gas produced globally by 2022. U.S. gas production would be more than one-fifth of the total global gas production by 2022, according to the IEA. More than half of the gas production growth in the U.S. will be destined for LNG exports. According to the IEA, the United States may be on course to challenge Qatar and Australia for global leadership in LNG exports by 2022.

“The US shale revolution shows no sign of running out of steam and its effects are now amplified by a second revolution of rising LNG supplies,” the IEA’s Executive Director, Fatih Birol, said in July this year.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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