Trump approves LNG exports, creates energy council to boost US oil, gas

Audio By Carbonatix

Enlarge

By Jarrett Renshaw and Timothy Gardner

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -President Donald Trump’s administration said on Friday it has granted a liquefied natural gas export license to Commonwealth LNG in Louisiana, the first approval of exports of the resource after former President Joe Biden paused them early last year.

The exports are approved to markets in Asia and Europe.

Trump also signed an executive order in the Oval Office on Friday creating a new energy council to be led by Interior Secretary Doug Burgum that will seek to expand U.S. output of oil and gas. The U.S. is already the world’s largest producer of those fossil fuels.

In addition, Trump said more than 600 million acres of offshore federal waters are now open to oil and gas development after Biden had taken them off the table.

Trump lifted the freeze on LNG export approvals on the evening he came into office for a second time on January 20.

Commonwealth LNG, which has waited longer than any other company for its permit, wants to build a 9.5 million metric ton per annum export plant in Louisiana to sell to countries that do not have a free trade agreement with the U.S.

Two other LNG companies, Cheniere and Energy Transfer, have said they plan to move full speed ahead with their plans to export the fuel.

Trump said he was working on getting approval for the Constitution natural gas pipeline that would bring gas from Pennsylvania’s drilling fields to New York, in order to bring down energy prices in the region.

Williams Cos canceled the pipeline in 2020 following opposition from politicians and environmentalists in New York, and it is uncertain how it could be approved.

(Reporting by Jarrett Renshaw, Timothy Gardner; editing by Deepa Babington and Nia Williams)