Impact of USA LNG trade on Prices
Timera Energy has a good post on why USA LNG exports matter:
The volume of the first tier US export projects looks to be in the order of 45 to 60 mtpa (of a total ‘proposed’ volume in excess of 200mtpa). In a global market context (~240 mtpa) this is not an overwhelming volume when anticipated incremental demand growth is considered. However the volume of first tier US projects is large in the context of spot market pricing dynamics, given only around 20% of global LNG supply is currently flexible.
The flexible nature of the contracts will make them the swing supplier, for which ever market needs them. As long as the market remains well supplied, this creates a potential new liquid spot market and a new price benchmark.