Passage 1
In a turnaround that would have been unthinkable a few years ago, the US is predicted to become the world’s top oil and gas producer by 2020, passing Russia and Saudi Arabia.
That is the message of a report produced by PFC Energy, a consultancy, in November. The reason is the rapid growth of production from shale rock sources because of advances in technology.
The forecast, on a barrel of oil equivalent basis, is a marked change for a country where overall oil, gas, and gas liquids production peaked in the early 1970s.
The growth in extraction from shale has made the US the world’s largest producer of natural gas. It is now poised to enter the global liquefied natural gas export market.
“North America is the second-largest source of additional LNG capacity in this decade after Australia,” Nikos Tsafos, senior manager in upstream and gas at PFC. “That is truly astonishing. ”
Just 10 years ago the US was trying to build terminals to import LNG. Today, those who had expected to import are moving to refit facilities so they can now export.
In late October, the BG Group signed the first long-term agreement to buy LNG from the Gulf coast, taking the US a step closer to becoming an exporter.
Roger Ihne, principal in the energy and resources practice at Deloitte, the consultancy, estimates that if the three terminals that have been approved for export proceed with their plans, the amount of gas sent abroad would be just under 10 percent of current US consumption.
And the impact on prices would be minimal, adds Tom Choi, Deloitte’s national practice leader for gas in the consultancy’s MarketPoint forecasting group. He estimates that even with that amount of fuel exported, US natural gas prices would only rise less than 2 percent because the resource is so abundant.
“Even if the US substantially increased the use of natural gas, there would still be substantial gas left to meet its domestic needs for decades,” Mr Ihne says.
Nonetheless, US manufacturers, who have gained substantially from the drop in US natural gas prices associated with the shale production boom, are worried. The Industrial Energy Consumers of America, a non-partisan association of leading manufacturing companies with $700bn in annual sales, is urging changes to the natural gas export permit process.
19.With fuel export increasing, US natural gas prices will rise substantially.
A、True
B、False
【正确答案】：B
【名师解析】:根据文章内容，美国由于页岩气产量的迅速增长，预计到2020年将成为世界上最大的石油和天然气生产国，超过俄罗斯和沙特阿拉伯。文章中提到，尽管美国将增加天然气的出口，但根据Tom Choi的估计，即使出口量达到当前美国消费量的近10%，美国天然气价格的上涨幅度也不会超过2%，因为资源非常丰富。此外，Roger Ihne表示，即使美国大幅增加天然气的使用，仍然有足够的天然气满足国内需求数十年。因此，美国制造业者担心天然气出口增加会导致国内天然气价格大幅上涨的担忧是没有根据的。所以，题目中的说法"With fuel export increasing, US natural gas prices will rise substantially."是错误的，答案为B.False。
