Republican members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee held an informal forum on liquefied natural gas exports on October 10. Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI) commented that the domestic shale gas boom can improve relationships with key allies. The forum was broken up into three focuses on exports to Asia, Europe, and the Caribbean, and representative countries included the Czech Republic, Haiti, Hungary, India, Japan, Lithuania, Singapore, South Korea, and Thailand as well as Puerto Rico.