American Oil and Gas Reporter - January 2012 - 224

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The Presidential Papers
U.S. natural gas prices is Cheniere Energy Partners' plans to retrofit its liquefied
natural gas terminal for export purposes.
Cheniere has worked to establish a new
market for LNG exports. In 2011, Cheniere
announced that its subsidiary, Sabine Pass
Liquefaction LLC, received approval from
the U.S. Department of Energy to export
LNG from its Cameron Parish, La., site to
nations not already covered by free trade
agreements.
Cheniere says it plans to build an estimated $3.9 billion natural gas export facility at its Sabine Pass LNG terminal in
Cameron Parish. The company plans to export as much as 438.3 Bcf of LNG a year.
Sabine expresses plans to sell 340.9 billion
cubic feet of that production under longterm sales agreements, and already has
signed an export contract for half of that
amount with BG Gulf Coast LNG LLC.
This project is great news for U.S. natural gas producers and prices. It also
could play a large role in ensuring the continued development of shale gas plays
through long-term price stability.

Gulf of Mexico
Although the federal government has increased the number of projects granted permits and activity is slowly rising in the Gulf
of Mexico since the Obama administration
lifted its deepwater drilling moratorium,
permitting has not returned to its historical levels in either shallow or deep water.
GNO Inc.'s Oct. 11, 2011, report found
that deepwater permit issuance lags the
monthly average from the year before the
oil spill. The report claims that 3.7 deepwater permits are being issued each month
since August 2011. That means that deepwater permit issuance is 47 percent below
the average of 7.0 permits a month
throughout the past three years.
Shallow-water permit issuance also is
below historical averages. Since August
2011, the federal government issued an average of 4.7 shallow-water permits. That
number represents a 68 percent reduction
from the historical average of 14.7 permits
a month during the past three years.
It has been estimated that in the coming year, production from fields deeper

than 1,300 feet will yield about 1.39 million barrels a day of oil equivalent. That
projection is 500,000 boe/d fewer than
many market analysts and companies
projected before the moratorium.
Information from the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement indicates that in 2009, companies were granted 330 deepwater drilling permits in contrast to only 218 that were granted this year.
Oil And Gas = Jobs
While the U.S. economy continues to
struggle through the economic recession,
America's oil and gas industry is one of the
only sectors effectively seeking to lower
the national trade deficit and expand economic growth.
Despite the lack of support and cooperation from the federal government, our
industry is creating jobs and providing affordable energy for all Americans.
Louisiana continues to be a leader in oil
and gas development and production. In
the coming year, we plan on moving forward and continuing what we do best.❒

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American Oil and Gas Reporter - January 2012

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Oil and Gas Reporter - January 2012