Houston Chronicle by Jordan Blum Sep. 18, 2019
While Texas and oil may seem synonymous, the nation as a whole is producing more natural gas than ever and Houston is the hub for the United States’ burgeoning liquefied natural gas export industry.
About 35,000 people from around the world are in town this week at the NRG Center for the international Gastech conference, which returned to both Houston and the U.S. for the first time since 2000.
The shale boom and the surge in construction of LNG export terminals along the Gulf Coast are rapidly turning the U.S. into the world’s third-largest LNG exporter, behind Qatar and Australia, with much more growth on the horizon.
“We have more gas than we know what to do with,†said Charif Souki, founder of Cheniere Energy — the nation’s leading LNG exporter — and now the chair of Houston-based LNG and gas pipeline developer Tellurian. “We don’t have a place to put it. We don’t have any legitimate way of increasing domestic demand, so we must export it.â€
Feeding Asian growth
The federal government estimates U.S. natural gas production will average a world-leading 91.4 billion cubic feet per day this year, up from less than 50 billion cubic feet daily in 2005 before the shale boom kicked off.
Responding to Houston’s ascendance in the field, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is in the process of setting up a new LNG division office in town. “We’re dipping into the incredible talent pool we have here in Houston,†said FERC Chairman Neil Chatterjee.
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https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/article/Gastech-14447719.php
