Natural gas supplies, effect on Malaysian companies

From Politics Daily:

But natural gas has suddenly emerged as both a factor in this year's energy debate and a potential game-changer on the political landscape for the long term. A few facts, dramatic new supply projections, and a geological map help explain why.

First, natural gas is up to twice as clean as coal and 30 percent cleaner than oil when it comes to carbon emissions that contribute to global warming. Second, because of new drilling technology and shale gas discoveries in the last few years, America now is estimated to have a 100-year supply of natural gas at current consumption levels (see page 7 of the linked document). And third, check out where that gas is located. It's in Rustbelt states where senators are worried about how the energy bills would affect polluting industries, and in conservative states where they are concerned about how the measures would affect the cost of electricity.

Malaysia is a very large producer of natural gas. The companies that would have problems with the currently over abundant resource are MISC and Petronas. Petronas Gas could see some problems if prices keep falling. MISC is exposed through its large LNG shipping fleet. These tankers basically are made for LNG shipments only. They can't easily be converted to anything else. If countries like the US don't need as much gas shipped to them as indicated by their 100 years supply of gas, then MISC will surely suffer.

This oversupply of natural gas has caught many countries by surprise. For instance, the US is now only incorporating natural gas as a big part of their energy plans. They are in the law-writing stages only and infrastructure will take years to come online to make use of this over supplied resource. In the mean time, exporters of natural gas will have problems on what to do with all the supply.