Long-term impact of US Shale gas boom on Global Aromatics market

Shale gas is possibly the most important energy development in the past 50 years and it accounts for 35% of US natural gas production. Abundant supplies of natural gas liquids (NGL) are changing the economics of global petrochemical production patterns. Shale gas revolution in US has provided cheap NGLs to feed petro-chemical plants making the US plants more competitive globally next to the oil rich Middle East countries. Meanwhile, imports of shale dis-advantaged chemicals into US have increased. Net imports of BTX jumped 37 times from the lower levels of 2009 and the trade gap is expected to widen further. This article provides an overview of �How global BTX supply chain will be impacted with more & more crackers shifting to lighter NGL feed?� Impact of US shale gas boom on US petrochemical and energy Landscape: The development of US shale gas reserves has had a far reaching impact on the US chemical industry. Unlocking of huge reserves of shale gas that remained untapped previously is one of the exciting developments in E&P business. During the start of the century US natural gas prices became volatile, with US natural gas prices averaging USD 6.04/MMBtu from 2008 (including a record high of USD16/MMBtu in 2005). Therefore, US moved from the being one of the world's lowest cost regions to produce petrochemical to one of the highest.   Author: Priyanka Mani