Indian Corp. Seeks to Secure Import Rights in US, Australia

Petronet, India’s largest importer of liquified natural gas (LNG), is maneuvering to acquire capacity in the proposed LNG terminals in the Unites Sates and Australia, The Economic Times reported. “Five projects (in the US) have applied to US authorities for approval to export gas,” Petronet CEO and Managing Director A K Balyan told reporters here. “We are talking to some of them with an aim to tie up long-term volumes.”

Kinder Morgan Merges with El Paso

A few days ago, Kinder Morgan (KM) announced its plans to acquire El Paso Corporation. In the words of Peter Gardett, “The deal announcement is rife with precedent-setting statistics; the new Kinder Morgan will include the largest natural gas pipeline system in the US, the largest independent transporter of petroleum products and the largest independent terminal owner and operator in the country.” The deal also makes KM the fourth largest energy company in the US. Kinder said the company expects domestic US natural gas supply and demand to grow “at attractive rates for years to come.” The company will be expanding its role as part of a growing network of pipeline and storage assets bringing domestic natural gas from new fields to power plants and, potentially, even export terminals.

Seeking Energy Independence

Hey, what happened to domestic energy independence?  Wasn’t that part of the selling pitch to prod hesitant mineral rights owners into a lease contract?  Yes, it was.  And the move to export does not negate the fact that our need to import natural gas has been reduced dramatically. According to a last week’s update from the US Energy Information Administration,
“As domestic supply has grown, the need for imports has been reduced substantially. Since 2009, several terminals have begun to re-export LNG cargoes, and, more recently, explore the option to add liquefaction capacity to export domestically produced natural gas. Earlier this month, Dominion Resources asked permission from the U.S. Department of Energy to export domestically produced natural gas from its Cove Point facility in Maryland.”

When will we see natural gas fueled cars and handy natural gas service stations?  The West Virginia legislature voted to incentivize (that means, in this case,  giving industry a tax break at the expense of West Virginia taxpayers) the development of natural gas fuel stations in Senate Bill 465. According to this map, there are 2 compressed natural gas fueling stations in WV, but they don’t sell to the public.