The closure of the Strait of Hormuz stranded oil tankers from Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, which together supply 20 percent of the world’s LNG. Asia has been especially hard hit because it imports 80 to 90 percent of its supply from the Persian Gulf. Reopening the strait will not restore all lost supply. In mid-March, Iranian missiles destroyed 17 percent of the capacity of Qatar’s Ras Laffan refinery, and the CEO of QatarEnergy said Repairs could take five years.
The United States has made an aggressive push to be a larger part of the global LNG market, and Trump is looking to secure major purchase deals with trading partners such as Japan, the EU and South Korea. But the eight existing LNG export terminals in the United States are already operating at full capacity. Although Trump has promised to bring more capacity online, construction and permitting for the complex multibillion-dollar facilities has taken years.
As a result, U.S. LNG exports, about 15 billion cubic feet of gas per day, are currently limited to just 11 to 13 percent of total U.S. natural gas production. The situation leaves the United States with an abundance of its main fuel for electricity, even as other countries struggle to stretch their supplies.
But American consumers have been dealing with Electricity prices on the rise for a number of reasons unrelated to the war, mainly due to the accumulation of capital by utilities, in part to adapt to the data center explosion, but also to build resilience against wildfires, storms and other impacts of climate change and to replace aging infrastructure.
in your bimonthly video seriesenergy analysts at the Center for Strategic and International Studies contemplated how the United States’ best example of energy independence goes almost completely unnoticed by American consumers due to these other factors.
“So, while we are on the precipice of a global energy crisis, or perhaps we are already in one, the United States is going to feel that in the oil markets, but for the moment, by the nature of the gas system and the abundant supply here in the United States, are we insulated against gas price shocks?” asked Joseph Majkut, director of CSIS’s Energy Security and Climate Change program.
