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Saudi Arabia’s new 'freedom' gas

Saudi Arabia has partnered with a US company to export LNG from Texas, and is looking for more LNG deals.
General view of the Natural Gas Liquids (NGL) facility in Saudi Aramco's Shaybah oilfield at the Empty Quarter in Saudi Arabia May 22, 2018. Picture taken May 22, 2018. REUTERS/Ahmed Jadallah     TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY - RC1E18857C40

The United States has achieved a goal of energy independence. Now, according to the Department of Energy, US policy will support the export of American energy products such as liquefied natural gas as “molecules of US freedom” to the rest of the world. But energy markets are a little more complicated, and less nationalistic.

Saudi Arabia, through its national oil company Aramco, has just made a major gas investment in the United States. America’s energy independence has a side effect; it is also attracting its competitors as foreign direct investors. It is unlikely, however, that the American freedom gas exported by Saudi Aramco will find its way to the kingdom.

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