Gas 'Interchangeability' And Its Effects On U.S. Import Plans

摘要

U.S. natural gas production leves have decreased for the past several years and are expected to continue to decline, while domestic natural gas storage levels are well below their historical low points for the third year in a row. In June 2003, domestic gas storage levels reached the lowest level since statistics were first gathered in 1976. Pipeline gas imports from Canada to the U.S., which comprise 15 percent of U.S. supplies, are also expected to decline as production rates decrease and Canada begins to turn more of its gas resources to satisfy domestic demand requirements. At the same time, natural gas demand in the U.S. and Canada is expected to rise, primarily due to increases in the demand for new natural gas-fired power generation facilities. In fact, it has recently been estimated that because of increasing regulatory pressure to reduce hydrocarbon emissions, more than 90 percent of new power generation facilities under development in the U.S. are to be fired by natural gas. As a result, liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports from vast but remote supply sources, such as the Middle East, West Africa, Trinidad, Australia and Southeast Asia, are likely to play an increasingly important role in satisfying future U.S. and Canadian natural gas supply requirements.