Shale gas is the energy topic of the day.  Production is increasing, but so is gas demand – for electric generation, transportation, and as an industrial feedstock.  However, perhaps the most significant dynamic with the potential to drive natural gas prices up in the foreseeable future is a growing push to export LNG from the US.  That particular dynamic has recently gone into hyper-drive, with numerous liquified natural gas (LNG) export requests having been filed with the US Department of Energy in the past few years.

Consider this: according to the Energy Information Administration, total natural gas consumption for 2011 was 24.3 trillion cubic feet (Tcf), and 2012 consumption looks to be on the order of 26 Tcf.  In the meantime, just since mid-August, US companies have filed for permits with the USDOE to export 7.8 Tcf of LNG – about 30% of current total domestic consumption.  Total requests year-to- date equal 11.2 Tcf (though almost 1 Tcf is for re-export of Canadian gas).  Add to that, the 5.3 Tcf of exports requested last year, and you get approximately 16.5 Tcf.  That’s over 60% of current domestic consumption.  It’s also more than the amount of US LNG export capacity from five brownfield and three Greenfield projects in play that are listed in a recent Wood MacKenzie report.

via U.S. Natural Gas Exports Poised For Takeoff – Forbes.