A recent extensive report by Asia Pacific Energy Consulting (APEC) “Natural Gas Liquids in the Shale Revolution” considers the issue in detail. Qatar understood fairly quickly how a jump in shale gas output reshaped LNG markets – in 2012 it proposed exporting US gas with partner ExxonMobil from the Golden Pass LNG terminal. Yet the influence of US LNG sales has been far broader than simply a supply lift – it has shifted the basis of LNG pricing in Asia. New LNG contracts increasingly are including some form of US Henry Hub gas pricing combined with the Japanese Crude Cocktail (JCC) rather than being based solely on the latter as had been the case until recently.
Canada, rather than the US, may well impact physical gas supply to Asia more profoundly than American LNG projects – cargoes moving from British Columbia on Canada’s West Coast are considerably closer to NE Asia markets of Japan and South Korea than Qatar or Australia, let alone the US Gulf Coast-based LNG projects. (CONTINUED - 1623 WORDS)
