Europe was the biggest customer of U.S. LNG last year as the continent continues a shift that started with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
About 66 percent of U.S. LNG exports went to European countries, primarily the Netherlands, France and the United Kingdom.
Asia was the second biggest market for U.S. LNG at 26 percent. Japan and South Korea were the largest importers.
Australia and Qatar trailed the United States, with about 10 billion cubic feet of LNG exported from each. Further down were Russia and Malaysia, each with less than 5 billion cubic feet.
West Virginia, the fourth largest U.S. producer of natural gas, produced 3 trillion cubic feet in 2023, according to the Gas and Oil Association of West Virginia. Some of it was exported as LNG through the Cove Point terminal in southern Maryland.
The state’s gas industry expects the mid-year opening of the controversial and delayed Mountain Valley Pipeline, which will have a capacity of 2 billion cubic feet per day.
Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, has sharply increased gas production in the Appalachian Basin in the past 15 years.
To hear what impact the decision has on U.S. LNG exports, Curtis Tate spoke with Sam Reynolds and Ana Maria Jaller-Makarewicz of the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis.
A recent decision by the Biden administration to suspend permitting for new export terminals for liquefied natural gas has drawn criticism from West Virginia lawmakers.
To hear what impact the decision has on U.S. LNG exports, Curtis Tate spoke with Sam Reynolds and Ana Maria Jaller-Makarewicz of the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, an organization that favors a faster transition away from fossil fuels.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Tate: What does the pause on permitting for new LNG export terminals really mean?
Reynolds: Just for perspective, the U.S. is currently the largest global LNG exporter worldwide, we export about 86 million tons of liquefied natural gas a year. That’s more than Qatar and Australia, which are the next two largest. The U.S. currently has five projects under construction to export more LNG that would nearly double that amount over the remainder of the decade. Now, the U.S. pause on permitting, does not affect any of the existing or under construction projects. So that’s really important for consumers around the world to know that the U.S. is still on pace to nearly double its export capacity, and it’s already the largest worldwide.
Right now, in Asia, the U.S.’s largest customers are Japan and South Korea, and a lot of these new export facilities in the U.S. are justified under the impression that our customers need more of this LNG. In fact, if you look at these two largest buyers, Japan and South Korea, both are reducing their natural gas and LNG demand, and actually quite dramatically. So in Japan, LNG exports peaked in 2014 and have declined ever since. And they actually fell 8 percent last year, which is more than double the rate of decline in previous years. Japan is upping its nuclear and renewables capacity, and actually doesn’t want any more of this very expensive fuel, that is LNG. It’s opting for cheaper resources. and South Korea is very similar. LNG demand fell 4 percent last year, as it brings on cheaper energy sources like renewables and nuclear.
Tate: What about Europe? Didn’t Putin’s invasion of Ukraine cause European countries to become more reliant on U.S. LNG?
Jaller-Makarewicz: So while the U.S. was thinking, ‘Oh, Europe is in a big crisis, and we really need to step in to supply all the LNG that they need,’ at the same time Europe was working on their strategies to reduce gas demand. So what we see today, at the beginning of 2024, is a different reality than at the beginning of 2022. So what we have been saying in Europe, and I think that’s also the concern for the U.S. is that we need to analyze today’s conditions. For example, the gas demand in Europe reduced 20 percent In the last two years. Nobody could expect that. We could agree in certain instances, there’s some part of gas demand destruction. Part of it. But a great majority of it has been implementation of energy efficiency measures on gas demand management, on renewables. The mentality in Europe has changed now.
Tate: Can countries turn to other sources for LNG?
Reynolds: The growth, if you look at the growth markets for LNG demand, where is demand actually increasing? And the largest sources of growth for this product are in South Asia, India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Southeast Asia, Vietnam, Philippines, Thailand, Singapore. Now, these are much more price sensitive countries, they don’t have the same amount of wealth that Europe, Japan and South Korea have to spend on this relatively expensive product that is U.S. LNG.
And in fact, our main competitors for supplying these markets are Qatar and Australia, which are much cheaper sources of supply to this region. So they’re going to be making an economic decision about where to buy LNG. And actually, since the pause, we’ve seen a spate of deals announced with Qatar to buy more of their LNG. So it’s not necessarily that these countries are turning away from the U.S. specifically, because of the Biden pause. But there is an economic calculation to be made. Qatari LNG can often come in five to six times cheaper than U.S. LNG, which has to be shipped all the way around the world.
Jaller-Makarewicz: So I want to add something here. When the crisis started in Europe, Europe realized the dangers of depending so much on one supplier. That was the main problem that Europe was facing. So I don’t think they’re going to allow the same thing to happen. They are saying we need diversification of sources. So there will be up to a point where they will say that’s it. We need to diversify. We cannot accept more U.S. LNG, because we need to have more sources supplying the gas and LNG to Europe. So that also comes into play. Europe is under a lot of pressure for not repeating the mistakes of the past.
Tate: Has the Russia-Ukraine war accelerated the adoption of renewables and energy efficiency in Europe?
Jaller-Makarewicz: I can say that. And for example, in energy efficiency, before we were not talking about that topic, and suddenly, look, in September of 2022, I was in Madrid for an event. And it was hot. And they had a law that they couldn’t have the air conditioners, they had to have them up to a certain level, because they didn’t want to use more energy. We also got lots of talk here, the thermostats in the winter would have just one degree less, so they started to think about us as consumers, we could also do something to reduce it with our consumption. And it was not talked about like that before. Now it was decided, we need to speed up the renewables, we need to reduce all the problems with the bureaucracy and all that to allow those tax breaks to come into operation. So they accelerated that. I can say that they accelerated that.
On this West Virginia Week, the West Virginia Legislative session is in full swing, and lawmakers have been considering a number of pieces of legislation. We’ll listen back to a few of our conversations with our guests this week on our program The Legislature Today. Also, we’ll hear from a man who recently arrived in Morgantown from the front lines in Ukraine.
On this West Virginia Week, the West Virginia Legislative session is in full swing, and lawmakers have been considering a number of pieces of legislation – from education, jobs, energy, hunger and more. We’ll listen back to a few of our conversations with our guests this week on our program The Legislature Today.
We also hear from a man who recently arrived in Morgantown from the front lines in Ukraine.
Liz McCormick is our host this week. Our theme music is by Matt Jackfert.
West Virginia Week is a web-only podcast that explores the week’s biggest news in the Mountain State. It’s produced with help from Bill Lynch, Briana Heaney, Chris Schulz, Curtis Tate, Emily Rice, Eric Douglas, Jack Walker, Liz McCormick, and Randy Yohe.
On a recent Friday night, a small gathering got together in Morgantown to show their appreciation to a front line veteran of the war in Ukraine.
Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, sparking a new wave of fighting in a conflict that stretches back at least a decade.
On a recent Friday night, a small gathering of about five families got together in the community center of an apartment complex in Morgantown. Young women wore flower crowns with ribbons cascading off of them. Intermixed with English, you could hear snippets of Ukrainian.
The group gathered to show their appreciation to Araiah Ben Yehuda, who recently arrived from the front lines in Ukraine.
Originally from the United Kingdom, Ben Yehuda moved to Israel in the 1990s where he served as a police officer until the outbreak of the war in Ukraine. Barring a visit to Israel at the outbreak of that country’s war against Hamas, Ben Yehuda has been on the front lines for almost two years and said it was time for a break.
“They just invited me to come to Morgantown,” he said. “I told him that I needed time to rest from the war, and they asked me to come over.”
Ben Yehuda said he appreciates the calm of West Virginia, although he was a little taken aback to find himself amongst Ukranians so far from the front lines.
“I knew I was coming to Morgantown, but I didn’t expect an evening like this, meeting with fellow Ukrainians,” he said. “It’s a nice feeling that you feel wanted, but being in the center of attention is hard for me. My body is here, but my mind is still back in Ukraine fighting, so it’s hard for me.”
For Ukranians living in Morgantown like Valeria Gritsenko, Ben Yehuda is a glimpse into the military reality of the war.
“I haven’t heard directly the military perspective,” she said. “This has been very useful for me to hear that the war is going okay. It’s not easy. It’s very tough and difficult, and there are still problems with weapons supplies, but morale is high, and everyone is determined to win.”
Gritsenko is an assistant professor of biomedical engineering at West Virginia University. Almost all of the members of the small Ukrainian community were attracted to Morgantown by the university.
Originally from the city of Kharkiv in northeastern Ukraine, near the Russian border, Gritsenko has lived in Morgantown for more than 10 years after coming to the university. Gritsenko said she gets more of the civilian perspective on the conflict from her friends and family, when she can.
“They are getting tired of the war, especially in this holiday season,” she said. “When I last talked to friends in Ukraine, the nerves are very frazzled by all the sirens and bombings and they’re just hoping that the war will end sooner rather than later, but they have no doubt that they will win.”
Gritsenko’s husband, Sergiy Yakovenko, likened Ben Yehuda to a medieval knight and said it was amazing to meet someone dedicated to defending his home country. Yakovenko hopes his work at the university with biomedical research into new prostheses will help recovery efforts, but he and others need the war to end first.
“Different types of prosthetics that would be able to communicate with the nervous system and prosthetic device and enable more, really kind of intuitive control of the device and be more like a real hand,” he said. “It’s a problem not only in Ukraine, but here, just as much of a problem for all veterans who don’t have adequate solutions for their disability.”
A Ukranian flag on display at the Jan. 5, 2024 gathering in Morgantown in honor of Araiah Ben Yehuda.
Credit: Chris Schulz/West Virginia Public Broadcasting
There is a growing frustration that international attention has lost focus on the Ukrainian conflict as it stretches into another year and new issues arise.
Yakovenko’s parents, Mykhailo and Vira, relocated to Morgantown a few months after the war. He said their experience and his struggle to get them out of the country has left him dealing with post-traumatic stress.
“It’s difficult to resolve. It’s something that we will have to deal with with the whole nation of Ukrainians and people who were exposed to this war,” Yakovenko said. “But my parents managed to get out.”
With help from Gritsenko, Vira explains that despite the distance and being in the U.S. for almost two years, her thoughts and her life are still in Ukraine.
“Here, we live our life in Ukraine vicariously through the internet,” Vera said. “We just keep watching for everything, all the events that are happening over there, especially in the holiday times. We saw that the 138 buildings were destroyed in this big last bombardment in Kharkiv, and we worry about all the people that are left without a roof over their head in winter.”
Mykhailo adds that he finds it very hard to wait out the war, and live with the constant pressure.
“I would really like it to be over sooner rather than later, and ask the Americans who support Ukraine to continue supporting Ukraine, because Putin will not stop at Ukraine and if he’s allowed to win there, he will just roll over other countries,” he said.
Although not Ukrainian, Julia Khazajeva has integrated into the small, local community. She was previously a journalist in Russia, but unwilling to support the war effort, she fled with her family in 2022.
“I just met several people who helped me and an opportunity opened right in Morgantown,” she Khazajeva said. “But I really had another opportunity to get to Washington, for example, but those moments I wanted to have something peaceful and really quiet, and Morgantown is a blessed place we found.”
Like Ben Yehuda, Khazajeva is grateful for that peace. But she and the rest of this small community live with the daily reminders that their friends and family back in Ukraine and Russia live a very different reality. Their biggest concern is that if Ukraine falls, that will only be the beginning of a broader, international conflict.
“What I keep repeating to my friends over here is that if we stop providing weapons to Ukraine, guys, Russian soldiers will go further,” Khazajeva said. ”They will go to Lithuania, Poland, even Germany. I know Russian culture. I know how these people think from inside. They will not stop.”
Ben Yehuda plans to continue traveling before returning to fight in a few weeks. In February, it will be three years since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine, and the group that came out to honor Ben Yehuda are left wondering what will face him when he returns to the front lines, and what fate has in store for their homeland.
On this West Virginia Morning, Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, sparking a new wave of fighting in a conflict that stretches back at least a decade. As that fighting enters its third year, a small community of Ukrainians, formed around West Virginia University (WVU), recently came together to honor one of the war’s frontline veterans.
On this West Virginia Morning, Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, sparking a new wave of fighting in a conflict that stretches back at least a decade. As that fighting enters its third year, a small community of Ukrainians, formed around West Virginia University (WVU), recently came together to honor one of the war’s front line veterans. Chris Schulz has the story.
Also, in this show, the corrections system in West Virginia is a point of discussion at the state legislature. Overcrowding staffing is at the top of the list. Last week for The Legislature Today, Randy Yohe sat down with forensic psychologist Dr. David Clayman and Senate Jails and Prison Committee co-chair Sen. Jason Barrett, R-Berkeley, to talk about the diversion of certain persons from the criminal justice system.
West Virginia Morning is a production of West Virginia Public Broadcasting which is solely responsible for its content.
Support for our news bureaus comes from Shepherd University.
Eric Douglas produced this episode.
Listen to West Virginia Morning weekdays at 7:43 a.m. on WVPB Radio or subscribe to the podcast and never miss an episode. #WVMorning
This week, we drop by Flat Five Studio in Salem, Virginia. It had a reputation for recording bluegrass bands, but caught a big break in the early 1990s when the Dave Matthews Band needed a quiet place to record its debut album. We also learn a little about primordial forests, and we visit a small nonprofit company in West Virginia that’s making solar powered light kits for families in war-torn Ukraine.
This week, Inside Appalachia drops by Flat Five Studio in Salem, Virginia. It had a reputation for recording bluegrass bands, but caught a big break in the early 1990s when the Dave Matthews Band needed a quiet place to record its debut album.
We also learn a little about primordial forests. A patch of woods in the New River Gorge National Park and Preserve was recently inducted into the Old Growth Forest Network.
And we visit a small nonprofit company in West Virginia that’s making solar powered light kits for families in war-torn Ukraine.
Tom Ohmsen’s been around music and recording his whole life. He got his first tape recorder when he was just a kid. In college, he recorded bluegrass bands, which led to the start of Flat Five Studio in Salem, Virginia.
In the early 1990s, the studio helped launch the Dave Matthews Band, but now Ohmsen’s looking toward retirement.
Mason Adams visited Flat Five to get its history and hear about its future.
The Burnwood Trail Protected And Preserved
If you ever want perspective on your place in the world, visit one of Appalachia’s old-growth forests. Trees tower overhead and you can get a sense of just how old the world is. Old-growth forests play an important ecological role, too, protecting against erosion and providing a habitat for rare animal and plant species.
The nonprofit Old-Growth Forest Network is dedicated to protecting these old growth forests. Recently, the Burnwood Trail at the New River Gorge National Park and Preserve was brought into the group’s network.
WVPB’s Briana Heaney has this story.
Lights For Ukraine
Russia’s war with Ukraine has dragged on for more than a year and a half. The distant war has faded into the background for some, but not for the head of a West Virginia nonprofit, who wanted to do something for Ukrainian families under constant threat of bombardment.
WVPB’s Assistant News Director Caroline MacGregor visited New Vision Renewable Energy in Philippi, West Virginia where they’re making solar light kits for Ukrainian families that can also be used to charge a cell phone.
Dire Decisions At WVU
Students and community members protest on the downtown Morgantown campus of West Virginia University Aug. 21, 2023.
Credit: Chris Schulz/West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Grappling with a $45 million budget shortfall, West Virginia University in Morgantown, West Virginia has recommended cutting 32 of its 338 majors, including all of its world language programs.
WVPB’s Chris Schulz has been covering the story.
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Our theme music is by Matt Jackfert. Other music this week was provided by ONA, Valerie June, John Blissard, June Carter Cash and Little Sparrow.
Bill Lynch is our producer. Zander Aloi is our associate producer. Our executive producer is Eric Douglas. Kelley Libby is our editor. Our audio mixer is Patrick Stephens.
You can send us an email: InsideAppalachia@wvpublic.org.
