The near doubling of U.S. natural gas prices this winter has damped Asian hopes of buying American gas on the cheap when exports begin in a couple of years. Winter storms and bitter cold in recent weeks boosted demand in the U.S. Prices have eased recently , but had surged to more than $6 per million British thermal units this month from around $3.70 per mBtu in late November. Although seasonal, this price surge has confirmed worries by some Asian gas buyers that much-hyped U.S. gas exports, when they begin, won’t be available at prices as low as previously expected. Asian power producers may now be reassessing the share of U.S. gas in their future energy mix, and reconsidering calls for the benchmarking of regional gas prices against the volatile U.S. gas market. “I think a lot of people were thinking that U.S. LNG export volumes were a no-brainer, […]