During the past couple of years, when U.S. prices of natural gas hovered around $ per million Btu, import prices of LNG in Europe have ranged between $ and $ and those in Japan and Korea have generally been between $ and $ Estimates of production and delivery costs of LNG to North America appear to hover around $ In the short run, exporters to the United States are likely to receive our domestic price, currently above $ per million Btu.
But unless world gas markets tighten aggressively, competitive pressures will arbitrage the U.S. natural gas price down, possibly significantly, through increased imports. In addition to expanded supplies from abroad, North America still has numerous unexploited sources of gas production. Significant quantities of recoverable gas reserves are located in Alaska and the northern territories of Canada.