Just a few years ago, the Center was working on the LNG import issue. Now the script has flipped and America is becoming an exporter of LNG due to the boom in domestic shale gas production via hydraulic fracturing. Of course, this flipping of the import/export issue is brewing a fight between companies that want to export some of America's fast-growing supply of natural gas and big manufacturers that oppose the exports because they rely on cheap domestic gas. Exporting natural gas could cause U.S. prices to increase and could pit manufacturers such as Dow Chemical Co. against energy producers like ConocoPhillips. 
Companies are setting their sights on selling liquefied natural gas (LNG) to markets in Europe and Asia where natural gas sells for three to four times the price in the U.S. According to Platt's, natural gas in Japan and South Korea sells for more than $16 per million British thermal units, compared with a benchmark price of a little more than $3 per million BTUs in the U.S. The companies are looking to spend billions of dollars on new terminals that could ship out about 17% of U.S. daily production, or about 11 billion cubic feet per day, according to the Energy Department. But Dow Chemical and others say allowing exports will crimp the supply available to U.S. users and drive up prices here.
Please read more from:
