UPDATE: US Likely To Limit LNG Exports To Keep Low Gas Price

(Adds details and quotes from Total CEO.)

PARIS -(Dow Jones)- The U.S. government is likely to impose limits on exports of liquefied natural gas in order to keep its domestic natural gas prices low, said executives from two major oil companies with operations in the country Thursday.

This means that European natural gas prices are likely to remain much higher than those in the U.S. for years to come, with negative implications for the competitiveness of European industry, they said.

Natural gas prices in the U.S. have fallen to 10-year lows because of a boom in production of gas trapped in shale rock. The U.S. government "wants to keep this surplus to keep the price down," in the long term, said Christophe de Margerie, chief executive of France's Total SA (TOT), at the Petrostrategies conference in Paris.

Several companies are planning to build plants that would convert some of this domestic surplus of gas into LNG that could be shipped internationally.

It isn't official policy, but the U.S. Department of Energy "will limit exports to keep pressure downwards [on natural gas prices] in the U.S.," said de Margerie. European gas prices are therefore likely to remain at a significant premium to those in the U.S., he said.

This could benefit U.S. industry because "low prices for natural gas offer manufacturers a powerful competitive advantage," said Mark Williams, the downstream director for energy giant Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDSB).