Chronicle of raw materials
US LNG projects flourish in the Gulf of Mexico
Audio 01:37
The MarkWest Bluestone gas processing plant in Evans City, Pennsylvania.
The United States has pledged to help maintain Europe's energy supply by increasing exports of liquefied natural gas (illustration image).
AP - Keith Srakocic
By: Altin Lazaj
2 mins
Faced with soaring prices and the needs of Europeans to free themselves from Russian gas, projects for liquefaction plants and export terminals are multiplying in the United States in the Gulf of Mexico.
American liquefied natural gas (LNG) is the big winner of this crisis.
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President Joe Biden had promised the Europeans: his administration would do everything possible to accelerate the export of liquefied natural gas to the European Union, which is very dependent on Russian gas.
On the ground, in the Gulf of Mexico, LNG terminal projects have almost doubled: fourteen have been approved, there are currently eight in the region.
Since the Ukrainian crisis, the American authorities have issued authorizations more quickly than before and the administrative procedures have been simplified.
American companies no longer have difficulty finding money despite the high costs of these projects, between 10 and 20 billion dollars for the construction of a liquefaction plant;
banks and investors are indeed rushing to finance them, the return on investment is assured thanks to the exorbitant prices of gas on the markets and a world demand which continues to increase.
An energy crisis that benefits the United States
Since the beginning of the year, the United States has become the leading exporter of LNG in the world, a performance acquired in less than 10 years thanks to shale gas.
According to the US Energy Agency, export capacities should increase by another 16% in 2022 with Europe as the first destination.
But to help the European Union free itself from Russian gas, member countries would still have to build LNG terminals.
Europe does not have enough and it takes between two and three years to build a terminal.
The European Union could theoretically increase its LNG imports by some 50 billion cubic meters per year, or a third of supplies from Russia.
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