Accessibility links Skip to main content Keyboard shortcuts for audio player Open Navigation Menu --> Newsletters NPR Shop Close Navigation Menu Home News Expand/collapse submenu for News National World Politics Business Health Science Climate Race Culture Expand/collapse submenu for Culture Books Movies Television Pop Culture Food Art & Design Performing Arts Life Kit Gaming Music Expand/collapse submenu for Music Tiny Desk New Music Friday All Songs Considered Music Features Live Sessions The Best Music of 2025 Podcasts & Shows Expand/collapse submenu for Podcasts & Shows Daily Morning Edition Weekend Edition Saturday Weekend Edition Sunday All Things Considered Up First Here & Now NPR Politics Podcast Featured Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me! Fresh Air Wild Card with Rachel Martin It's Been a Minute Planet Money Get NPR+ More Podcasts & Shows Search Newsletters NPR Shop Tiny Desk New Music Friday All Songs Considered Music Features Live Sessions The Best Music of 2025 About NPR Diversity Support Careers Press Ethics War in Iran increases demand for U.S. liquefied natural gas producers Liquefied Natural Gas producers in the U.S. are benefiting from export demands fueled by the Iran war. National War in Iran increases demand for U.S. liquefied natural gas producers March 13, 20264:44 AM ET Heard on Morning Edition From Gulf States Newsroom By Drew Hawkins War in Iran increases demand for U.S. liquefied natural gas producers Listen · 2:57 2:57 Transcript Toggle more options Download Embed Embed "> <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/nx-s1-5743547/nx-s1-9686549" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"> Transcript Liquefied Natural Gas producers in the U.S. are benefiting from export demands fueled by the Iran war. Sponsor Message
A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
The global market for energy is in disarray because of the U.S. and Israeli war with Iran, which has blocked the path many oil tankers take. The Gulf States Newsroom's Drew Hawkins reports that U.S. companies see an opportunity to export more liquefied natural gas.
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DREW HAWKINS, BYLINE: Phillip Dyson has fished the coastal waters of Cameron, Louisiana, for more than 50 years. Shrimpers like him are catching less than half of what they used to five years ago, according to the state's Department of Wildlife and Fisheries.
PHILLIP DYSON: Probably the last five years been declined since they built this LNG. I can't imagine another five years.
HAWKINS: The Gulf Coast is ground zero for America's liquefied natural gas, or LNG, exports. When LNG supplies surged, fueled by the fracking boom in the late 2000s, companies needed new buyers, and they looked overseas, building these massive terminals to ship LNG. During construction on one of them, there was a dredge spill last summer that killed oyster beds in the area. Now, it's not clear whether the spill or warmer water temperatures or other environmental factors affect the shrimp catches. But Dyson thinks the ships and construction from those terminals may be contributing to fewer shrimp.
DYSON: They won't come in. I'm assuming that's the reason.
HAWKINS: And the LNG expansion isn't just up ending communities like Cameron. It's now at the center of a global energy crisis. Tyson Slocum is an energy analyst with Public Citizen, a nonprofit consumer advocacy group. He says Iran's closure of the Strait of Hormuz sent shock waves through natural gas markets in Europe and Asia. Qatar, one of the largest LNG producers on earth, shut down all of its exports.
TYSON SLOCUM: And so what this means is a massive financial windfall for U.S. LNG exporters.
HAWKINS: While natural gas prices have increased sharply in Europe and Asia, they haven't done so in the U.S. Many oil and gas industry experts say this country will be largely protected from natural gas price spikes this year because companies are already exporting about as much natural gas as they can, more than 14 billion cubic feet a day. The U.S. would need additional LNG terminals. The war in Iran, Slocum says, could push the U.S. industry to try to export more.
SLOCUM: Because the more they're able to produce, the higher their windfall profit is going to be.
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HAWKINS: For shrimpers like Phillip Dyson in Cameron, Louisiana, the ledger is already in the red, and he says he knows he'll eventually have to give it up.
DYSON: It's getting worse and worse by the day here.
HAWKINS: Across the country, more than a dozen new LNG export terminals are already under construction or approved. Six of them are in southwest Louisiana.
For NPR News, I'm Drew Hawkins in Cameron, Louisiana.
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