The United States Department of Energy (DoE) has introduced measures to ease and streamline destination reporting requirements for US liquefied natural gas (LNG) exporters, as US LNG production and exports will be soaring in the next few years.
The current regulation stipulates that LNG export authorization holders have to report the final country of end-use for LNG exports, which can be different from the country receiving the physical delivery of LNG. Under the new regulation, they are now only required to mention the country or countries of LNG deliveries and not the country of end-use. The policy change addresses the reporting of LNG delivery destinations and the types of supply and sales agreements LNG exporters have to file with the DoE. LNG exporters are still required to continue the current ban on LNG exports to sanctioned countries.
In addition, the DoE will also work on a new rule, which will specify which types of supply and sales contract agreements have to be reported and when they need to be filed. As per the current policy, all long-term LNG export authorization holders have to report all long-term (i.e. more than 2 years) supply and sales contracts.
This announcement is a significant deregulatory step forward meant to boost US LNG exports, which are expected to skyrocket in the next decade.