On December 19, 2018, the Department of Energy’s Office of Fossil Energy, (DOE/FE) published in the Federal Register a policy statement that it is discontinuing its practice, adopted in 2016, of including an “end use” reporting provision in orders authorizing the export of domestically produced natural gas, including liquefied natural gas (LNG), issued under section 3 of the Natural Gas Act (NGA). Under this practice, many authorization holders are currently required to track and report the country (or countries) of destination into which their exported LNG or natural gas was “received for end use.” Due to practical concerns about this reporting requirement and a reconsideration of the need for the requirement given those concerns, DOE/FE has determined that it is prudent to discontinue this requirement in export authorizations going forward. DOE/FE will revert to its prior practice of requiring authorization holders to report, in relevant part, the country (or countries) into which the exported LNG or natural gas “was actually delivered.” DOE/FE believes this action will enhance the accuracy of information provided by authorization holders and will reduce administrative burdens for the U.S. LNG export market. This policy statement affects only future export authorizations issued by DOE/FE. However, concurrently with the issuance of this policy statement, DOE/FE is issuing a blanket order removing the end use provision from applicable existing export authorizations issued from February 2016 to present.
