Natural Gas Intelligence Covers Akin Gump Energy Briefing, Interviews Steve Davis

Natural Gas Intelligence, in “2013 North American Energy: Focus on Shale, States, Exports,” reported on the global media energy briefing that Akin Gump held in December and also interviewed Houston-based energy partner Steve Davis to follow up on some of the themes of that briefing.

Davis noted, “"There is a lot of attention being paid to the United States and North America overall becoming energy self-sufficient. Some people like to talk about the United States becoming energy independent, but other people prefer to talk about North America being energy self-sufficient. Given all the infrastructure needs we have in the country, it seems to be pretty unlikely that we are going to be energy independent to the point where we are not importing oil at all."

Having noted the substantial “infrastructure constraints” keeping the United States from energy independence, Davis said, regarding how and whether a major North American market will develop, “There is a tremendous amount of infrastructure being built, and more to come. It’s largely attributable to the fact that we now have the production of both oil and natural gas in areas that have not traditionally been producers. So the infrastructure needs are being pursued very actively."

On natural gas liquids’ role on infrastructural growth, he said, “Just the chemical sector alone is driving tremendous infrastructure build-out. We are going to see more export of U.S. petrochemical products [polyethylene, and other products all made possible by the development of so much unconventional gas].”