Page 4 - LatAmOil Week 44 2021
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COMMENTAR
      LatAmOil                                      COMMENTARY Y                                          LatAmOil






































                                                                                    Jacksonville LNG facility (Image: Eagle Partners)
       US senators eye Latin American





       and Caribbean LNG markets







       Five members of the upper house are trying to expedite the permit process for small-scale LNG exports



                         EARLIER this week, five US Senators came out   – that is, in volumes of no more than 51.1bn
                         in support of draft legislation that would give   cubic feet (1.447bn cubic metres) per year. It
       WHAT:             US natural gas producers incentives for target-  calls for the US Department of Energy (DOE) to
       Rubio, Cassidy and three   ing markets in Latin America and the Caribbean   expedite the approval of such requests “without
       other Republicans have   region.                       modification or delay” on the grounds that such
       submitted the Small-  In theory, the proposal, known as the Small-  initiatives are “consistent with the public inter-
       Scale LNG Access Act for   Scale LNG Access Act, could benefit countries in   est”, according to statements released by Cassidy
       consideration.    these regions, as well as US exporters, by open-  and Rubio.
                         ing up new avenues for the delivery of clean-  “The current permitting process for LNG
       WHY:              er-burning fuel.                     export facilities is expensive, and small-scale
       The legislation has the   In practice, though, it is likely to fail, largely   projects often are not cost-effective under cur-
       potential to facilitate US
       LNG deliveries to Latin   for political reasons.       rent conditions,” the statements said. “Reducing
       American and Caribbean                                 the time and investment required for small-scale
       markets.          The measure                          exports will benefit US production, manufac-
                         The Small-Scale LNG Access Act was re-intro-  turing and construction jobs, while also reduc-
       WHAT NEXT:        duced in the US Senate on November 3 by five   ing trade deficits with the importing country.
       The bill is unlikely to   Republican Senators – Bill Cassidy (Louisiana),   Increasing LNG exports, even on a small scale,
       pass, though a nearly   James Inhofe (Oklahoma), John Kennedy (Lou-  will positively impact the economies of the
       identical rule adopted by   isiana), Marco Rubio (Florida) and Rick Scott   United States, as well as the economies of those
       the Department of Energy   (Florida).                  receiving US natural gas.”
       remains in place.   The bill is designed to expedite the approval   Both Cassidy and Rubio pointed out that
                         of requests for permission to export US-pro-  the bill was designed to codify an existing rule
                         duced natural gas in relatively small amounts   adopted by the DOE in July 2018.



       P4                                       www. NEWSBASE .com                      Week 44   04•November•2021
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