Tea Leaves Suggest We May See Some More LNG Export Licenses This Year

Do folks remember the results of this poll: will the US grant any more LNG export licenses this year? The results were:

• Yes: 65%
• No: 35%

Here's an update. Forbes is reporting:

U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz made his first official visit to Capitol Hill to, in part, reassure an improving manufacturing sector that domestic natural gas production would grow and that it would have access to affordable fuel. With that, he said that his agency would decide on more gas export applications by year end.

At issue, of course, is whether the nation’s natural gas producers will be able to sell their product to Asian and European countries where prices are much higher than in the United States. Currently, the glut of unconventional natural gas here, or shale gas, has dampened domestic prices — a dynamic that, conversely, has benefited energy-hungry U.S. manufacturers and one that has fed their commercial expansion.

But oil and gas companies ranging from Sempra Energy to Dominion Resources to ExxonMobil Corp. have mammoth investments in so-called Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) import terminals. Those were built more than a decade ago and before the shale gas boom could have been anticipated. Now, those platforms must be converted from import to export facilities so that the natural gas can be super-cooled and shipped in the form of LNG.

My hunch: O'Bama sees $$$$. O'Bama sees train wreck. O'Bama sees how $$$$ might help prevent train wreck. He can use a lot of $$$$$ to fund O'BamaCare. Funny how things work out.

Investors take note.

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