In 2005, the U.S. outlook for energy was vastly different from what it is now according to Shawn Bennett, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Oil and Natural Gas, Department of Energy (DOE), United States of America. Bennett was speaking at the 2020 Trinidad and Tobago Energy Conference. 

He said that at the time, the U.S. was evaluating liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminals because they thought they were at a moment of scarcity where there was not enough production to meet domestic markets. This, however, was before the shale revolution, and then everything changed. Now the U.S. is the global leader in crude oil and natural gas production in the world. Production has increased by 70% and continues to rise. 

U.S. natural gas production is now about 92bcf/d. For comparison, Trinidad produces approximately 3.6 bcf/d. He said that the U.S. is positioning itself to be able to provide global energy security.

He added that, "According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), global gas consumption is expected to reach about four billion cubic metres by 2023, adding about 376 billion cubic metres. The markets will be the Asia and Pacific regions which will account for over half of the consumption of the growth from 2023 and much of this natural gas growth demand will be met with LNG." 

At present, it is projected that production of natural gas in the U.S. will continue to grow and exceed domestic consumption by more than 20bcf/d up to 2050. 

Bennett said that the emergence of the U.S. as a global exporter, challenges some of the norms in LNG trade. He said that it challenges features of supply contracts. Exports from the U.S. include flexible destination clauses and gas-indexed pricing, and provides different models from the standard fixed delivery to oil-indexed supply agreements. 

When LNG is on the water, it has no final destination clause so purchasers of LNG may sell and deliver to any entity unless it is a country with a sanction attached to it, but this enables U.S. LNG to be the most flexible LNG on the market. 

He also said that the U.S. conducted several studies to ensure that exporting LNG does not jeopardise the country’s ability to access natural gas at a low price. He indicated that three studies have been done since 2012 to analyse various scenarios and volumes being exported. 

He added that there are seven projects currently in operation with current export capacity of around eight billion cubic feet a day or about 80 billion cubic metres per year. This, as the U.S. hopes to have other projects online by 2022 through 2025. 

When these are complete, the U.S. will be in a position to export 15bcf/d Bennett said. He added that this will position them as the top exporter of LNG in the world. 

According to Bennett, the U.S. is also encouraging small-scale LNG. He said that in 2017, the DOE announced a proposed rule that will provide for faster approval of small-scale exports from the U.S. The rule became effective in 2018 and first approvals were made in 2019. This includes LNG exports to the region, including the Caribbean.