Shale gas 'revolution' impacts to vary across globe: OTC panelists

Houston (Platts)--5May2011/544 am EDT/944 GMT

The impacts that the international liquefied natural gas market will see from shale gas production growth in North America and across the globe will vary widely according to local market conditions, members of a panel at the Offshore Technology Conference in Houston said Wednesday.

In the US, where the "shale gas revolution" first started and already is well under way, domestic gas supplies have severely cut into the demand for imported LNG, Emma Cochrane, manager of gas power and marketing for ExxonMobil, said.

With ample gas supplies to meet US gas demands most of the time, LNG imports will largely serve to meet seasonal balancing needs, she said.

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"Imports will mostly come in the summer, where there is nowhere else for the gas to go," Cochrane said. As a result of the inflow of gas supplies from shale plays across the nation, "the US becomes almost self-sufficient" in meeting its gas demand in the future.

In other regions of the world, however, the growth of shale gas production will be less of a factor in supply-and-demand dynamics than more localized factors, Rafael McDonald, associate director of global gas research, IHS CERA, said.