‘China has been a defibrillator for the US gas industry’

PODCAST: With special guest Clark Williams-Derry, IEEFA energy finance analyst

“Some of these [greenfield US LNG export] projects have been on life support for a while, just sitting on the shelf waiting for buyers to show up. But the buyers who are showing up right now are Chinese. The Ukraine gas crisis has been a sort of defibrillator for the US gas industry, which seemed like it was on its deathbed or sick bed at least. But the shock for that defibrillator is coming from China, not Europe.”

I managed to sit down with Clark Williams-Derry of the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) over the weekend, and we really got stuck into the state of play for US LNG exports to Europe. Clark explained in crystal-clear terms both what’s enabling higher exports today, and the many factors hindering further expansion over the coming years.

We also spoke at length about the knock-on impacts of Europe’s newfound appetite for spot LNG. A ‘lightbulb’ moment for me in the conversation was when Clark explained how Europe’s tendency to lean on the spot marke…