A Trump Darling, Gas Exports, Set to Gain as Iran Deal Dies - Bloomberg
▻https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-05-10/shale-gas-exporters-to-gain-as-iran-move-encourages-drilling
Another darling of the Trump administration is poised to gain from the Iran deal breakup as oil surges: Natural gas exports.
With the move to curb Iran’s oil output encouraging more shale drilling, prices for natural gas produced alongside crude in West Texas could crater, falling to zero some days, according to Tudor Pickering Holt & Co. Already, the gas sold at West Texas’ Waha hub is down 51 percent for the year.
That’s bad for producers selling the fuel in the U.S., but good for companies that export it in tankers. As the market for liquefied natural gas grows in Asia, being able to source gas at its cheapest should give U.S. exports a leg up.
[…]
“I doubt this was a driving factor by the administration” to impose sanctions because “we just don’t have that much capacity built up for LNG exports,” said Anastacia Dialynas, an analyst at Bloomberg New Energy Finance. But indirectly, she said, “if it results in a structurally higher oil price, it definitely makes U.S. cargoes more attractive.”