US's NGL exports seen quadrupling by 2020

[NEW YORK] US exports of natural gas liquids (NGLs), already at a record amid surging output from shale deposits, are poised to quadruple by 2020 as the expansion of the Panama Canal cuts shipping costs to Asia.

Deliveries of the fuels to foreign buyers averaged 555,000 barrels a day in July, the most in US government data going back to 1981.

China's imports of propane, butane and isobutane, with uses as varied as home heating, chemical manufacturing and refrigeration, jumped 23 per cent in August from a year earlier, customs data show.