The Oil Drum

As even a casual reading of the story The North American Red Queen: Our Natural Gas Treadmill indicates, the importance of future Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) imports to North America can hardly be overstated.

Declining U.S. Lower 48 Natural Gas Production
Source: North American Oil & Gas Plays Focus on the Non-Conventional (pdf) from IHS Energy
The decline in output is 2.2 trillion cubic feet (TcF)
off the 2002 baseline
Figure 1 — Click to Enlarge

This story will discuss the emergence of a globalized LNG market and the ability of that market to supply the high volumes of LNG that the United State will need to avoid future shortfalls. Will such a globalized market really come to pass? What form will it take? What does the current LNG market look like? How will the United States become integrated into the expanding LNG trade? These are the questions we shall examine here.