OPEC isn't the only decades-old energy hegemony being turned on its head by U.S. shale.
Liquefied natural gas sellers from Qatar to Malaysia that dominated gas sales to Asia for years are facing the prospect of rising American exports. While less than 30 U.S. cargoes have landed in Asia, their effect was felt even before they arrived. LNG trade in 2016 jumped the most in five years, contract lengths were sliced in half in the past decade, and spot prices slumped more than 60 percent in the past three years.
That means the global LNG titans gathering in Tokyo this week for Gastech are in the midst of the biggest shake-up since the industry was founded in the 1960s. Just as American crude is increasingly making its way to Asia, the world's biggest oil market, the burgeoning armada of gas cargoes from the U.S. and elsewhere are poking holes in the financial system on which the industry's multibillion plants are funded.