What We're Reading

China's state-controlled energy giant Sinopec wants to sell some long-term liquefied natural gas (LNG) import deals as a slowing economy makes them unprofitable, sources say, signalling the end of a five-year boom fueled by rising Chinese demand.

Kos here:  Note LNG and GLNG are two names in this space.  LNG shown left - click chart to enlarge..

Asia's thirst for energy has helped drive a "dash for gas" in producer countries from Australia to Canada, with LNG emerging as the fastest growing fuel source since the beginning of the century on the back of soaring Chinese imports. But just as long-planned projects start to come on stream China's economy is stuttering, which is likely to crimp demand and pull down domestic gas prices to levels that make imports unprofitable.

"We talk about China choking on LNG. There's just too much coming onto the market," said Gavin Thompson, Head of Asia Gas Research at Wood Mackenzie. Analysts say falling crude prices, which have dropped around 40 per

An explosive new report from the U.S. Department of Energy makes clear that Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) is likely a climate-destroying misallocation of resources.

That is, if one uses estimates for methane leakage based on actual observations.

This is the same conclusion I reached back in 2012, based on

• Emerging analyses of how even a relatively low leakage rate in the natural gas production and delivery system negate its climate benefit, and
• A 2009 EU report on how the energy-intensive liquefaction process and transportation further increase LNG emissions.

Again, natural gas is mostly methane, and some 86 times (to as much as 105 times) better at trapping heat than carbon dioxide.

One of the country’s leading experts on natural gas leaks told me, “a close reading of the DOE report in the context of the recent literature indicates that exporting natural gas from the U.S. as LNG is a very poor idea.”

So you may wonder why the Financial Times had this headline on its story: “US LNG exp