US Dept of Energy Authorizes More LNG Exports

The US Department of Energy has authorized additional exports of domestically produced natural gas from the Freeport LNG Terminal in Texas, according to a DOE press release from Tuesday, but the press release is garnering additional attention for its coining of the phrase “freedom gas” when referring to this LNG.

“Increasing export capacity from the Freeport LNG project is critical to spreading freedom gas throughout the world by giving America’s allies a diverse and affordable source of clean energy. Further, more exports of U.S. LNG to the world means more U.S. jobs and more domestic economic growth and cleaner air here at home and around the globe,” US Secretary of Energy Mark Menezes said at a Clean Energy Ministerial in Canada this week as cited in the press release.

The press release further uses the phrase “molecules of U.S. freedom” in referring to the fossil fuel.

The use of the phrase in the quirky press release was quickly bandied about on Twitter.

While likening natural gas to freedom managed to raise some eyebrows, the onslaught of US LNG exports to other countries will provide alternate sources of the fuel to countries who may otherwise have a single—or limited—supply choice.

Regardless of whether you call it LNG or freedom gas, US LNG is taking the world by storm, with the US FERC approving in April two LNG projects including the Tellurian’s Driftwood LNG terminal and pipeline in Louisiana, and Sempra Energy’s Port Arthur LNG facility in Texas. Both of these projects are set to deliver first LNG in 2023. But that’s not all. As many as ten additional LNG projects are still in the queue waiting for FERC approval.

US LNG export capacity is set to double by end 2019 from end 2018, reaching 8.9 billion cubic feet per day. This would make the United States the third largest LNG exporter in the world behind Australia and Qatar, according to the EIA.

By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com

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