Currently natural gas is super cheap in the US, about 20% compared to what Europe pays for it. Natural gas companies are looking into building these plants that prepare it for export. They would cost billions to build and so far they are having a hard time getting approved.
Is it better to leave them unbuilt and preserve natural gas for North America only. Or would it be smarter long term to build these export facilities to encourage cleaner burning natural gas use throughout the world and increase prices (and taxes) for our domestic natural gas suppliers.
There is some fear at the current low prices that drilling will dry up because it will be more expensive to extract it than they can sell it for.
Thomas Sowell: There are no solutions, just trade-offs.
The big need is identifying a less expensive means of moving it around.
Natural gas is much more expensive to transport than oil.
Oil is a liquid - and simply sits in a container.
NG can be a liquid - but only if it's pressurized and chilled - but pressurized containers have tougher design specifications than simple liquid containers (think of a LNG tanker as a floating thermos).
That's why NG exploration has slowed a lot in the area. Right now, with the cost of transport, it's simply not economical (does not generate adequate rates of return).
