Administration sources are telling The Wall Street Journal that the U.S. has no immediate plans of exporting surplus supplies of domestic natural gas.
The Obama administration is telling Japan and other allied countries they will have to wait before moving forward on plans to buy American natural gas, people involved in the talks said.
At present, only small amounts of natural gas are piped to Mexico and to Canada, but a spate of companies have indicated a willingness to liquefy domestic natural gas and ship it overseas.
Following the disaster at its Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant last year, Japan pulled the plug on all of its nuclear reactors, forcing it to replace a power source that generated about 30% of its electricity. The government is studying whether to restart some of the reactors, but nuclear power is likely to play a smaller role in five or 10 years.
That is when the U.S. natural gas could start arriving, but only if the U.S. grants permits to export terminals that would liquefy the gas for shipping across the Pacific.
Opponents of exporting our natural gas recognize that the abundant supplies of this fuel offer an opportunity for America to further its energy security as well as strengthening our economy.
Oil-and-gas entrepreneur T. Boone Pickens, in an interview, objected to the idea of selling the gas at a discount to global prices. “You’re kind of giving your own stuff away, and it’s stupid to do that,” said Mr. Pickens, who wants U.S. trucks to use natural gas.
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