Coals To Newcastle -- Part II -- The Saga Continues -- Energy? America's Century -- August 3, 2016

Just last week I posted a note, "Coals to Newcastle" about the US exporting LNG to the mideast. Now tonight, over at Twitter, the Oil & Gas Journal is reporting that the Mideast and North Africa (or as those in the know say, MENA) are investing more than $10 billion in LNG import terminals. This is really quite incredible:

Countries in the Middle East and North Africa account for a rapidly rising share of global LNG demand and will invest about $10.3 billion in the “medium term” to meet import needs.

The MENA share of LNG demand will rise to 6.5% by the end of next year from 1% in 2013.

LNG imports by MENA consumer countries totaled 10.5 billion cu m in 2015, of which 40% was from Qatar.

The countries, some of which have problems with creditworthiness, will be cautious about investment in permanent LNG import terminals and increasingly will charter floating storage and regasification units (FSRUs) “as a temporary and lower cost solution.”

Kuwait, the first Gulf Cooperation Council member to import LNG, is an exception. Now using an FSRU, it plans a permanent terminal at Mina Al-Ahmadi with capacity of 15 billion cu m/year, capable of being doubled.

In the United Arab Emirates, where LNG imports by Dubai meet peak gas demand during summer, plans for an import facility in Fujairah have been cancelled in favor of a chartered FSRU at Ruwais, Abu Dhabi.

That option has been called a “flexible solution” to meeting power shortfalls until four nuclear reactors are completed in the UAE in the early 2020s.

A "big story" entry: LNG exports.