Big Gain Seen for Asia, Small Loss for U.S. From LNG Exports
- Asia natural gas prices stand to drop as much as 4.9 percent
- U.S. gas prices would climb less than 1 percent by 2025: study
An impending flood of U.S. shale gas into the global market stands to lower the price of the heating fuel in Asia by almost 5 percent while marginally raising costs to customers at home, a study commissioned by the U.S. Energy Department shows.
Exports of 20 billion cubic feet of U.S. gas by 2040 may cut prices in the Asia-Pacific market by 73 cents per million British thermal units, while increasing U.S. prices by a mere 17 cents in the same period, according to the study authored by Oxford Economics and the Center for Energy Studies at Rice University. Despite the climb in domestic prices, the shipments would be “marginally positive” for the U.S. economy because of bigger profits and more spending on production of the fuel, the report shows.