The United States’ expectations that liquefied natural gas (LNG) will be the “savior” for its gas supply problems may be too high, said a top official with American Electric Power (AEP) last Tuesday.

Speaking to a U.S. Energy Policy Forum in Washington, DC, AEP President and CEO Michael Morris said he believes LNG imports may peak out at 2 or 3 Tcf. With the United States looking at a 22-23 Tcf annual gas market in the years ahead, “I’m not sure LNG will add that much to the overall [supply] equation.”

And, “don’t forget that this country…will compete in an international marketplace for that same gas resource,” where it hasn’t had much experience and its distance from foreign LNG suppliers makes the U.S. a less profitable market.

“The netback price to China for the [LNG] producer and the netback price to India is going to be much better than the netback price [to] the United States,” Morris said.

So, for the United States to “automatically assume” that that “2 or 3 or 4 Tcf” of LNG-sourced gas will be “ours and ours alone, I think, is wrong-headed thinking and something that we really do need to address.”

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