U.S. becomes net natgas exporter for a day with sale to Brazil

By Scott DiSavino
Feb 26 (Reuters) - The United States turned into a net
natural gas exporter for a day after the first liquefied natural
gas export from Cheniere Energy Inc 's LNG.A Sabine Pass
terminal in Louisiana left for Brazil on Wednesday.
The United States however is not expected to become a net
exporter of gas on an annual basis until 2017 after more
pipelines to Mexico and LNG export terminals enter service,
according to federal energy estimates.
The United States was last a net exporter of gas on an
annual basis in 1957.
On Wednesday, the United States imported a net 4.8 billion
cubic feet of gas per day from Canada and 0.2 bcfd from various
LNG import terminals for a total of about 5 bcfd in imports.
NGA/
Exports however surpassed 6 bcfd on Wednesday, with about
3.3 bcfd going to Mexico and some 3 bcfd going to Brazil on the
Asia Vision LNG tanker from Sabine Pass.
Since no LNG ships left Sabine Pass on Thursday, the United
States returned to being a net importer that day.
Just over a decade ago, the United States was expected to
become a major importer of LNG. Firms that were spending
billions to build facilities to import gas from overseas are now
spending billions to build LNG export terminals.
The switch was sparked by the shale gas revolution, which
unlocked cheap, abundant U.S. supplies especially in the
Marcellus and Utica formations in Pennsylvania, West Virginia
and Ohio.
To deal with the rapid increase in Northeast U.S. shale gas,
pipeline companies reversed the flow of some pipelines built to
move gas from Texas and the Gulf Coast to major population
centers in the Northeast.
Those pipelines now move Northeast gas south to fuel
industrial facilities and LNG export terminals being build along
the Gulf Coast.
At the same time, U.S. utilities in the Midwest and
Northeast with easy access to cheap Marcellus and Utica gas are
buying less from Texas and from Canada, leaving producers in
Texas with more fuel to sell to Mexico to feed that country's
growing power demand.
There are 5 LNG export terminals under construction in the
United States expected to enter service by 2020, including ones
by Cheniere at Corpus Christie in Texas, Dominion Resources Inc (N:D)
D.N at Cove Point in Maryland, Sempra Energy (N:SRE) SRE.N at
Cameron in Louisiana, and Freeport in Texas.
If all of the liquefaction trains under construction at
those terminals enter service as planned by 2020, the United
States will be able to export about 9 bcfd, about 11 percent of
forecast total U.S. gas production at that time.