Good sign for India: US allows LNG export

The US department of energy on Friday allowed a Texas facility to export liquefied natural gas, signaling a policy change India would, and should, welcome. Yashwant Raj reports.

The US department of energy on Friday allowed a Texas facility to export liquefied natural gas, signaling a policy change India would, and should, welcome.

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Freeport LNG Expansion, LP and FLNG Liquefaction, LLC were allowed to export LNG to countries that don't have Free Trade Agreements with the US.

Japan will benefit mainly from this decision -- two of countries are major investors in the Texas facility, but as another non-FTA country, India will fill encouraged.

"I hope this means that more facilities will get approval in due time, sooner rather than later," Freeport LNG Chief Executive Michael Smith told the Wall Street Journal.

There are 19 applications for LNG export to non-FTA countries awaiting clearance from the department of energy.

Some of them are from those with plans to export to India.

The US has the world's largest tappable reserve of natural gas made possible by new drilling technology - horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing (also called fracking).

But the decision to export was not easy. After the grant of the first license in 2011 to Cheniere Energy to export LNG from its Louisiana facility to non-FTA countries, including India.