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Bloomberg
If there’s one thing that became clear during the White House’s “Energy Week,†it’s that South Korea is really, really into US natural gas.
In less than 24 hours, South Korea’s energy companies had announced four partnerships with US companies to explore opportunities in the US natural gas business. Korea Gas Corp., the state-owned gas supplier, said it’ll look into potential investments in liquefied natural gas projects in Alaska, Texas and Louisiana. SK Group signed an agreement with General Electric Co. and Continental Resources Inc. to pursue shale gas developments.
It makes sense. South Korea is already one of the world’s biggest importers of LNG and has bought eight cargoes of US gas from Cheniere Energy Inc.’s Sabine Pass terminal in Louisiana.
While Sabine Pass is the only one sending shale gas abroad, dozens of terminals have been proposed along US coasts to do the same. The exports have put the US on a path to becoming a net gas exporter for the first time in decades.
President Donald Trump told reporters after a White House meeting with South Korean President Moon Jae-in that he was “gratified†to learn of new investments the country’s companies are making in the US He noted a cargo of LNG that Cheniere just sent to South Korea, part of a deal that Trump estimated as being worth $25 billion.
US LNG may in fact play a big role in furthering South Korea’s energy policies. After the election of Moon Jae-in as president in May, the country is looking to transition away from coal and nuclear power in favor of natural gas-fired electricity generation.
And buying more US fuel could allow the country to smooth geopolitical disputes over unbalanced trade, Korea Gas Chief Executive Officer Lee Seung-Hoon said at the Sabine Pass terminal, where the company celebrated the start of an LNG contract with Cheniere.