U.S. Firms Eye More Natural Gas Exports, Journal Reports

With natural gas use increasing as a transportation fuel, energy companies are moving to export more of the fuel from the United States as they search for more profitable markets, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday.

A consortium of firms, including oil giants Exxon Mobil Corp. and ConocoPhillips Co., are moving forward with a project to build an Alaskan natural-gas pipeline to export liquefied natural gas to Asia at a potential cost of more than $65 billion, the Journal said in a front-page story.

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The project is the latest sign of the transformation of the U.S. from a heavy energy importer into a major producer and likely exporter, the paper reported.

The export project would compete with more than a dozen proposed U.S. plants that hope to get federal approval to export LNG, notably to Asia where natural gas sells for several times the U.S. price, the Journal said.