A guide to the LNG world

July 16, 2001
Natural gas wellhead prices in the US have hovered near $3/Mcf in recent weeks and threatened to fall farther. That has started to make producers nervous.

Natural gas wellhead prices in the US have hovered near $3/Mcf in recent weeks and threatened to fall farther. That has started to make producers nervous.

What a difference time makes: Only 2 years ago, those same producers would be smiling at the prospect of gas prices in that neighborhood. The lower prices, however, are leading to more storage injection, which may in turn moderate city gate prices this winter.

But the drop in natural gas prices from their unsustainable heights of last winter doesn't seem to be bothering another group of interested parties.

Plans to export LNG to the world's largest market continue. These plans recognize that the US market will continue to be supply-short and demand-long for some time.

More relevant, however, is the fact that the LNG business has changed drastically in the last 20 years, as explained in the lead article in this week's special report (see p. 60).

By this winter, all four US LNG import terminals will be operating for the first time in more than 20 years, and two will have been recently expanded. At the same time, at least one more terminal, in the Bahamas, will be on the road to completion, and several more are envisioned, for Texas and even-gasp!-for California.

As in Europe, LNG will finally come to play a small (10-15%) but vital part in supplying US natural gas markets.

It's very timely, then, that the Gas Technology Institute (GTI), Des Plaines, Ill., should have issued last month the second compilation of data on global LNG facilities, the World LNG Source Book 2001.

Complete picture

The first edition appeared in 1997 under the auspices of what was then the Institute of Gas Technology, since merged with the Gas Research Institute to form GTI.

In a press release describing the second edition, GTI said there are 300 existing and planned LNG facilities and more than 50 prospective export liquefaction plants and import terminals.

Statistics profile owners and operators; design, engineering, and construction contractors; major component suppliers; production and storage capacity; LNG source, composition, and energy content; process type and cooling and heating medium (for liquefaction facilities); maximum vessel size and berth capacity; port restrictions; vessels loaded and unloaded; and planned expansions, among other information.

Results of research indicated:

  • Twelve countries have liquefaction facilities with 64 trains that, combined, can produce nearly 127 million tonnes/year, equivalent to more than 6 tcf of natural gas. Announced capacity expansions of these existing plants will bring total capacity of all plants to more than 183 million tonnes. Twenty new projects have been announced in currently and newly exporting nations, according to the second edition of the sourcebook.
  • Thirty-eight receiving terminals are operating in 10 countries, and nearly 30 new terminals are planned.
  • Seventy-seven peakshaving liquefaction plants are active: 62 in the US; 5 in the UK; 3 in Canada; 2 in Germany; and 1 each in Australia, Argentina, China, Belgium, and the Netherlands. More than 175 satellite facilities operate in 11 countries, including 68 in Spain, 45 in the US, and 39 in Japan.

An accompanying article in the source book says that global LNG trade grew by 8.2% in 2000, to 102 million tonnes (equivalent to 4.8 tcf of natural gas), pushed by the buildup of production from the Qatar (Ras Laffan), Nigeria, and Trinidad and Tobago projects and startup of Oman LNG. At the same time, the entry of Greece into LNG trade expanded the number of importing countries to 10.

In the US, LNG imports rose 70% in 2000 to 233 bcf, only a few cargoes short of the record 250 bcf imported in 1979. The US imported 100 cargoes: 55 into CMS Energy Corp.'s Lake Charles, La., terminal and 45 into Cabot LNG Corp.'s Everett, Mass., terminal.

Of the total 233 bcf, 47.5% was short-term imports and 52.5% was brought in under long-term contracts.

Reopening the Cove Point, Md., and Elba Island, Ga., receiving terminals, mothballed since 1980, will bring total US receiving capacity to 900 bcf/year.

Sources

Information in the book derives from questionnaires supplemented by internet and literature searches.

And it's a safe bet that a prime research location was Oil & Gas Journal, especially its electronic research capability available through OGJ Online.

For the last 23 years, OGJ has been energetic and thorough in covering the LNG business for its subscribers and offering them, through a variety of media, easy means for researching this important segment of the world's energy business.

As OGJ approaches its 100th birthday in 2002, that commitment to providing complete and accurate information is only stronger.