Two decades ago, the accepted wisdom in the energy sector was that the US was running out of natural gas. In 2005, Lee Raymond, the famously combative CEO of Exxon Mobil, declared that “gas production has peaked in North America.” Raymond, who retired from the oil giant in 2006, said that his company was intent on building a new pipeline that would bring Arctic gas from Canada and Alaska south and that more natural gas supplies would be needed “unless there’s some huge find that nobody has any idea where it would be.”
It turned out that huge finds were right under our feet. Over the past two decades, thanks to private ownership of mineral rights, entrepreneurial capitalism, extensive pipeline infrastructure, and ongoing technology improvements in drilling and hydraulic fracturing, US gas production has more than doubled.
The result is a stunning turnaround in energy geopolitics. The US has gone from a natural gas weakling that would have been heavily dependent on LNG exporters like Russia, Australia, Nigeria, and Qatar to a global gas behemoth. More evidence of the turnaround came on Thursday when Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum visited Louisiana to celebrate the ongoing construction and expansion of Venture Global’s Plaquemines LNG export terminal. Venture Global announced an $18 billion expansion of the plant, making it the largest LNG export facility in North America.
In a speech in front of more than 1,000 workers, Wright, who pioneered hydraulic fracturing, said that 15 years ago, the US was the world’s largest LNG importer. Today, he said, it “is the largest net exporter of natural gas in the world and growing.”
Last year, Doomberg, everyone’s favorite green chicken and Substack writer, got it right when he/she/them/they wrote that “Cheap natural gas is the bedrock of the US economy. It explains much of the country’s economic resilience.”
Read the rest of this piece at Robert Bryce Substack.
Robert Bryce is a Texas-based author, journalist, film producer, and podcaster. His articles have appeared in a myriad of publications including the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Forbes, Time, Austin Chronicle, and Sydney Morning Herald.
Photo: courtesy Robert Bryce Substack
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