The liquefied natural gas industry will celebrate 30 years of international trade this year at a conference and exhibition that will take place July 3-6 in Birmingham, U.K.
Holding the conference in the U.K. is appropriate because the first international LNG trade was between Algeria's Arzew export terminal and U.K.'s Canvey Island terminal. Ironically, the Canvey Island plant was shut down last year.
Canvey Island terminal received LNG for peak shaving gas supply when Britain's gas was largely manufactured from coal. A British Gas plc spokesman said the plant had been mothballed and put up for sale.
Cyril Collins, senior process manager at M.W. Kellogg Ltd., London, explained that the Canvey Island project grew out of a U.S. plan of the 1950s, in which a gas liquefaction plant was built on the Mississippi to supply LNG to Chicago.
The Mississippi-Chicago project foundered on the licensing authority's rejection of the LNG barge design, Collins said. But the plant was used for LNG tanker trials by the U.K. government's Gas Council.
UNLUCKY TIMING
Canvey Island, commissioned in 1963, was capable of delivering 55 MMcfd of natural gas into the pipeline grid. It had six 4,000 metric ton LNG tanks and two 5,000 metric ton liquefied petroleum gas tanks.
The start of importing LNG to Britain in 1964, however, coincided with the issue of the first U.K. North Sea exploration licenses.Then on Sept. 17,1965, the Sea Gem drilling rig, operating for BP Exploration Operating Co. Ltd., found gas off Grimsby in 25 m of water.
The discovery was developed as West Sole field with original reserves estimated recently at 2 tcf of gas. West Sole went on stream in March 1967 and is producing to this day.
Shortly after West Sole's start-up, Britain began a program to convert from burning manufactured to natural gas as a string of gas field discoveries brought relatively cheap natural gas to the U.K. market.
LNG PROSPECTS
Although better economics of nearby natural gas developments meant the writing was on the wall for LNG in the U.K., LNG demand blossomed in Japan, the U.S., Korea, and southern and central Europe.
LNG exports have grown to 61 million metric tons/year, Collins said, with an additional 45-75 million metric tons/year expected by 2010.
The LNG 11 conference in Birmingham, the industry's 11th such gathering, will hear of plans to export LNG from new or expanded plants in Alaska, Russia's Sakhalin Island, Indonesia, Norway, Papua New Guinea, Qatar, Venezuela, and Yemen.
It also will hear of potential LNG import terminals in China, Croatia, Germany, India, Israel, Italy, Korea, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Spain, Thailand, Netherlands, Turkey, and even the U.K.
Delegates also will hear of growing interest in small to medium size LNG plants, which will support dedicated LNG supply to power stations.
Oh, and the price of the Canvey Island terminal, for anyone thinking of importing LNG once more when Britain's gas runs out? British Gas said the asking price is 17 million ($25 million).
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