UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — A Web-based seminar presented by Penn State Extension’s Marcellus Education Team will focus on how sharply higher volumes of liquefied natural gas — generated by the shale gas boom in Pennsylvania and other places — will boost United States’ exports.

The one-hour presentation, which begins at 1 p.m. Thursday, May 8, will feature Sugandha Tuladhar, vice president of NERA Economic Consulting. He will discuss the results of a new study sponsored by Cheniere Energy Inc., titled “Updated Macroeconomic Impacts of LNG Exports from the United States.”

That report is an update of the study of the macroeconomic impacts of liquefied natural gas exports that was issued by the U.S. Department of Energy in December 2012.

In 2013, the United States produced more than 24.2 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, Tuladhar noted. With the continued increase in natural gas production, more talk has turned to exporting it in the form of liquefied natural gas — or LNG. The LNG export potential from the United States is enormous and the economic impacts will be significant, he predicted.

“The new study responds to several issues raised since the first study, including use of current data, cumulative impacts of additional license approvals, impacts on the competitiveness of the U.S. chemicals industry and impacts of LNG exports on employment,” Tuladhar said.

“The study addresses 63 scenarios for potential LNG exports, looking at a mix of assumptions relating to U.S. natural gas supply, the international supply and demand and the future capacity and rate of growth of U.S. LNG exports. LNG exports from the United States provide net economic benefits in all the scenarios we investigated, and the greater the level of exports, the greater the benefits”

Source: Penn State