Trinidad & Tobago forced to seek new natural gas customers as U.S. demand declines

Trinidad & Tobago’s Point Fortin LNG terminal. PHOTO/File

The shale gale that has put the United States on track to be a net exporter of natural gas soon is also shaking up the international market for the fossil fuel, forcing Trinidad &Tobago to adapt by selling more of its supplies elsewhere.

The Caribbean twin island-nation’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports – once mostly shipped to the United States – increasingly are feeding hungry Asian markets, Trinidad & Tobago’s energy minister, Kevin Ramnarine, told Platts Energy Week.

According to Platts, the United States bought 80 percent of Trinidad & Tobago’s exported liquefied natural gas as recently as six years ago, but this has been turned on its head. While the United States deals with its own glut of domestically harvested natural gas, Trinidad & Tobago has had to find new customers, Ramnarine said.

(More: Trinidad & Tobago economy may be negatively impacted by the increase of U.S. shale oil and gas production)

Now, the twin island-nation is shipping about a third of its liquefied natural gas exports to South America and about a fifth to the United States, with the balance serving Asian and European customers.

Michael Levi, a senior energy fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, told a House panel last week that the decline in U.S. demand for natural gas from other countries is already weakening the domination of Russia in the European market. Potential U.S. exports could further erode Russia’s pricing power.

Source: FuelFix