Another Huge Energy Story For The US -- South America Emerging As Market For US LNG -- RBN Energy -- March 15, 2016

Updates

March 20, 2016: see the Brazil story below (RBN Energy). Genscape suggests it's time for Europe to pivot west with regard to LNG imports:

According to figures from BP's Statistical Review of World Energy 2015, nearly 45 percent of the natural gas delivered to Europe via pipeline in 2014 originated in Russia and Central Asia.

Geopolitical challenges in Ukraine and Turkey, however, threaten the stability and growth potential of vital pipeline corridors in these regions. Moreover, new pipeline infrastructure linking gas-rich Iran to Europe likely is more than a decade away. Given the unfolding scenario, Europe finds itself at a crossroads in terms of ensuring reliable and sufficient natural gas supplies.

A recent Genscape white paper argues that the region's gas customers should take steps to increase imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from North America. Not only would "pivoting West" help European gas customers diversify their gas supplies, but also give U.S. LNG producers a long-term market for their exports, says Genscape LNG analyst Ted Michael. 

Original Post

Active rigs:

	3/15/2016	03/15/2015	03/15/2014	03/15/2013	03/15/2012
Active Rigs	31	112	190	185	205

RBN Energy: South America Emerging as Market for U.S. LNG.

Lately, it’s not just liquefied natural gas (LNG) prices that are headed south, it’s LNG cargoes too. A few days ago, the first LNG shipment from Cheniere Energy’s Sabine Pass liquefaction/export terminal was sent to Brazil, where a drought has slashed hydroelectric production and boosted the need for natural gas-fired power. Today we consider what’s driving LNG and natural gas demand in Brazil, Argentina and other countries in the southern half of the Americas, and what that may mean for U.S. LNG exporters and gas producers.

Given the impact that LNG exports are expected to have on U.S. natural gas production over the next 15 to 20 years, it’s not surprising that the recent buzz about the destination of the initial LNG shipment from Sabine Pass in southwestern Louisiana rivaled interest in Kanye West’s self-promotional feud with Taylor Swift (well, almost).

As we all know, the Kanye vs. Taylor brouhaha continues, and—more relevant to today’s blog—Chevron Transport’s 160,000 cubic meter Asia Vision LNG tanker left Sabine Pass on February 24, 2016, and is, by now approaching the Salvador da Bahia Regasification Terminal, a floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) moored at Baía de Todos os Santos (Bay of All Saints) at Salvador, in Brazil’s state of Bahia.

Golar LNG Partners owns the FSRU, which is also known as Golar Winter; Petroleo Brasileiro—Brazil’s state-owned energy company, also known as Petrobras—charters it.

**********************************

Puppet

This story is also over at USA Today if unable to access NY Times. 

Obama reverses course on earlier decision to allow off-shore drilling along the US southeast course. The story is at The New York Times:

The Obama administration is expected to withdraw its plan to permit oil and gas drilling off the southeast Atlantic coast, yielding to an outpouring of opposition from coastal communities from Virginia to Georgia but dashing the hopes and expectations of many of those states’ top leaders.

The announcement by the Interior Department, which is seen as surprising, could come as soon as Tuesday, according to a person familiar with the decision who was not authorized to speak on the record because the plan had not been publicly disclosed.

This story is going to get a lot of folks excited, but it's a non-story for most and great news for the Bakken.

• there is a glut of global oil; we don't need a new more to come on the market
• we wouldn't see this oil for decades anyway; even if Obama had not changed his mind, there were plenty of existing headwinds to prevent drilling any time soon
• the US can simply bank this oil for future generations; Saudi Arabia should be so lucky
• there will winners and losers; for investors, don't invest in the losers 

**********************************

Hillary Puts Foot In Mouth

It's not "what she said," so much as "how she said it." How would you like if a presidential aspirant came to your community and told you he/she would destroy your livelihood. When I first heard her reported comments, I was dumbfounded. First of all, it was an old story; she did not "need to go there." 

From thestar.com.my: by-line, Frankfort, KY -- center of coal-mining country.

Facing a backlash from Appalachian Democrats, Hillary Clinton's campaign on Monday tried to reaffirm her commitment to coal communities one day after declaring on national television she was going to "to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business."

Clinton's comments came during a Sunday night appearance on CNN, where she was asked a question about how her policies would benefit poor white people in southern states who generally vote Republican.

"I'm the only candidate, which has a policy about how to bring economic opportunity, using clean renewable energy as the key, into coal country. Because we're going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business," Clinton said. "We're going to make it clear that we don't want to forget those people."

They will all get 16 weeks of unemployment benefits, she could have added. 

The good folks in coal mining country only heard this:

"I'm the only candidate, which has a policy about how to bring economic opportunity, using clean renewable energy as the key, into coal country. Because we're going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business," Clinton said. 

She could have told them that if  previous misguided policies resulted in loss of jobs in coal mining, we need to do what we can to transition energy industry to natural gas.

Oh, that's right: she has also promised to ban fracking. 

There goes Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Virginia.