http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444223104578036403362012318.html
Natural Gas Glut Pushes Exports
By DANIEL GILBERT and TOM FOWLER
Energy companies are racing to export natural gas from the U.S. as they search for more-profitable markets amid a continent-wide gas glut that has depressed prices to the lowest levels in a decade.
A consortium of energy companies said it is moving forward with a project to build an Alaskan natural-gas pipeline to export liquefied natural gas to Asia, at a potential cost of more than $65 billion. Tom Fowler has details on The News Hub. (Photo: Getty Images)
.A consortium including Exxon Mobil Corp., XOM +0.36%ConocoPhillips Co. COP +0.31%and BP BP.LN +0.59%PLC said late Wednesday it is moving forward with plans to export natural gas from Alaska's North Slope in a project that could cost as much as $65 billion. The long-awaited effort is expected to have a significant impact not just on Alaska and its economy, but also on U.S. construction and manufacturing companies that would supply steel and other materials for an 800-mile pipeline and the plant that would convert the gas into liquid for export on tankers.
The Alaska project is the latest sign of the transformation of the U.S. from a heavy energy importer into a major producer and likely exporter. American companies have led the world in discovering how to coax gas and oil from shale rock formations from Ohio to Texas, sending U.S. natural-gas production up 28% between 2005 and 2011, according to U.S. government figures. The new supply of domestic energy rendered an earlier industry plan to move Alaskan gas via pipeline to the continental U.S. unnecessary, according to experts and the companies involved.
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