Let's not forget what happened ....
Posted on 03/04/2014 7:05:50 AM PST by SeekAndFind
A prescient House Energy and Commerce Committee report released last month, just in time for Russia's invasion of Ukraine, suggested that "by becoming a natural gas exporter, the U.S. can supplant the influence of other exporters like Russia and Iran while strengthening ties with our allies and trading partners around the world."
President Obama does not want to use military force to counteract Russia. His 2015 Budget, due out this week, will shrink the military still further. But he has another weapon at his disposal, liquid natural gas exports.
Congress and the president should without delay pass laws to make it easier to export liquid natural gas. Such laws would help our allies and hit Russia where it hurts, in the pocketbook.
More than half of Ukraine's natural gas, and 30 percent of Europe's natural gas, is provided by Russia. Russia gets about half of its revenue from oil and gas. LNG is cheaper in the United States than in Russia, so increasing America's exports of LNG would lower Russia's profits.
Last fall, in a forum hosted on Capitol Hill, Zygimantas Pavilionis, Lithuanian Ambassador to the United States and Mexico, said, "An ability to import natural gas from the U.S., even very small amounts by U.S. standards, would make a huge impact on the Lithuanian gas market and allow the nation to develop a reliable alternative to Russian gas."
And according to Jaroslav Zajicek, the Czech Republic's Deputy Chief of Mission, "We have already seen examples where the Russian negotiating position during contract-renewal talks was weakened thanks to decreasing prices on the markets in Western Europe."
This week natural gas for April delivery was trading at about $4.50 per million British thermal units, compared to about $11 per million BTUs in Europe.
(Excerpt) Read more at realclearmarkets.com ...
Zero could ruin Putin’s day and probably the rest of his rule by issuing the permits for the LNG facility at Cove Point along with the one for the facility on the Gulf of Mexico.
So if Russia invades Ukraine, we sell them cheap LNG as punishment?
IIRC didn’t Reagan do something like this to depress oil prices to the point of almost bankrupting the former USSR.
RE: So if Russia invades Ukraine, we sell them cheap LNG as punishment?
I think the idea is to help Ukraine tide through the winter if Russia cuts of their natural gas supply ( Ukraine has barely 4 months of natural gas stocks left ).
How about all 37 pending permits?
https://www.ferc.gov/industries/gas/indus-act/lng/lng-proposed-potential-export.pdf
It would take us a lot longer than 4 months to build export terminals.
Sabine Liquefaction Project Schedule
July 26, 2010 - Submitted NEPA Pre-Filing Request
August 4, 2010 - FERC Approval to use Pre-Filing Process
January 31, 2011 - File NGA Section 3 Application
December 28, 2011 - Issuance of Environmental Assessment / Environmental Impact Statement
January 31, 2012 - File Initial Implementation Plan
April 16, 2012 - Issuance of Authorization
3rd Q - 2012 - Commence Construction
4Q 2015* - Liquefaction Project In-Service
http://www.cheniere.com/sabine_liquefaction/project_schedule.shtml
http://www.cheniere.com/sabine_liquefaction/liquefaction_project.shtml
That works for me. Thanks again!
Personally I couldn’t care less about the Ukraine or Russia but I’m all for profiting from our natural gas.
Can we get tankers to them in any reasonable time? And what about the customers served by the existing tankers- what do they do?
I don’t know much about LNG tankers, how would we get one to say Odessa- gotta go down the Med then through Istanbul to the Black Sea?
The last thing Russia wants is our natural gas reaching Europe. That destroys their ability to manipulate pricing to their advantage. LNG from the United States would not only eliminate any chance of Russia modernizing their military, it would also screw Iran to the wall and the other terrorism sponsors including Saudi Arabia.
There is no LNG conversion facility in Ukraine. The closest may be the one in Turkey on the Bosporus. There is a pipeline in the vicinity that brings Russian gas in from Ukraine. That could be reversed to transport gas to Ukraine.
Ukraine does not have an LNG conversion facility.
Allow individual US citizens, who own the gas, sell it to the buyer’s of their choice? That comes real close to being a free country.
Too bad it takes government action to undo previous government action that implemented the idiotic restrictions to start with. In this country the recent fracking boom has occered on private property. Which means this is not “our” gas or that “we” should allow it be exported. It belongs to private individual citizens who should be free to sell it as they see fit.
Nor do we have the existing LNG export capacity. It would take years to build both.
” - - - White House is announcing an aid package to Ukraine of $1 billion - - - “
FINALLY! A highly successful backward solution to all known problems comes out of the Nobel Peace Prize winning White House!
“What is that?, “ You may ask? The answer, of course, is unlimited amounts of unfunded US Taxpayer Debt Dollars!
Yup! Works every time, and faster than you can can say “IcandoanythingIwantbyjustbyoassingCongress.” Nobel Laurette Soetoro-Obama just says: “Charge it to the next generation, please! Whoopee! My work here is done! Golf anyone?”
Secretary of Statements John “Cachup” Kerry will ride in, start writing rubber checks, and the ensuing bright rosy glow will spread around the World. Well, maybe not onto “the Arab Street.”
Although the always weak, Obamanation Foreign Policy is well on the way to its usual backward success, there are still a few topics that have yet to be resolved, as follows:
* Were is the Internet Video that caused the Ukrainians to force their beloved President to take the entire Ukrainian Treasury with him when he fled the country?
* Will “Catchup” Kerry enlist the help of famed video detective Susan Rice to help him track down and jail the perp. who made this awful, obscure, unknown video, that the United States had nothing to do with?
* Will the US Department of Statements spend more unfunded US Taxpayer Debt Dollars for the Ukranian Denial Ad than they did for the 2012 Benghazi Denial Ad?
* Note: Kerry must excel here because due to the obvious cruel onslaught of the aging process on Mrs. Bill Clinton, “Catchup” Kerry may be duty-bound to replace her as the obvious Democrat frontrunner in the 2016 Presidential race.
* Since POS Soetoro-Obama hit the famous RESET BUTTON on Russia, the NASA Space Program has had to be “dependent on the kindness of strangers” from Russia. Hopefully, our astronauts will be able to borrow food and vodka from the Russians while they wait for “Catchup” Kerry to resolve this Ukrainian “investment.”
* Will buddy Vlad Putin be as flexible with the Renowned Obamanation Foreign Policy as Soetoro-Obama was with Putin?
* Rumor has it that Vlad Putin has his eye on being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his defusing of the Syrian “Red Line” Crisis.
* Another rumor is that Putin could win the Nobel Peace Prize if he sold all of Russia’s US Treasury Notes, requested that the USA be dropped from the G9, and appointed Snowden to be the Russian Ambassador to the United States of America.
BTTT
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