President Trump’s energy policy focuses on global energy supremacy
BE2C2 Report — Exxon Mobil Corp and Qatar Petroleum told the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) on Thursday they would start construction of the $10 billion-plus Golden Pass liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminal in Texas:
Exxon and Qatar Petroleum made a final investment decision to build the project in February and expect the project to enter service in 2024, reported Reuters.
The Texas plant (Golden Pass) is designed to produce around 16 million tons per annum (MTPA) of LNG, equivalent to about 2.1 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) of natural gas.
One billion cubic feet is enough gas for about 5 million U.S. homes for a day.
Qatar Petroleum owns 70 percent of the project, while Exxon owns 30 percent.
After exporting no LNG at the start of 2016, the United States is expected to become the third biggest LNG exporter in the world in 2019 behind Australia and Qatar.
President Trump’s energy policy focuses on global energy supremacy.
The country’s growing muscle as a natural gas exporter isn’t only seen by the Trump administration as an economic boon at home — it’s also viewed as a foreign policy tool. That view was articulated Tuesday as the Department of Energy announced the approval of liquefied natural gas exports from the Freeport facility in Texas.
“Increasing export capacity from the Freeport LNG project in Texas is critical to spreading freedom gas throughout the world by giving America’s allies a diverse and affordable source of clean energy,” U.S. Under Secretary of Energy Mark W. Menezes said in a statement.
Earlier in May in an interview with reporters in Brussels, Secretary of Energy Rick Perry also referred to “freedom” gas, and told news site Euractiv that “freedom” was for: Europeans.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) projected U.S. LNG exports will rise to an average of 5.3 bcfd in 2019 and 7.4 bcfd in 2020 from 3.0 bcfd in 2018. LNG exports in 2018 were worth about $3.5 billion.
