In energy debates, fear and ignorance form a lethal combination. When the subject is LNG, the two can wreak havoc among otherwise rational people trying to reach reasonable, long-term decisions on natural gas supply.
Witness US Rep. Tim Bishop (D-NY) who last month called floating LNG storage and regasification “unproven technology” that “threatens our local population and environment.” Plenty of ignorance and fear (and fear mongering) here.
But reduce the ignorance, and sometimes you can reduce or eliminate fear. Many LNG companies have taken great pains to educate people about LNG in communities where they want to operate. Their efforts have met with occasional success.
A couple of informational tools are available to help, at least where channels of communication remain open.
Collaboration
In 2004, several industry groups produced a compact disc, “LNG: The Safe, Clean Energy Choice.”
The groups are the Society of International Gas Tanker and Terminal Operators, Gas Processors Association, GTI (formerly the Gas Technology Institute), Center for Liquefied Natural Gas (CLNG), and Institute for Energy, Law & Enterprise at the University of Houston (now the Center for Energy Economics, Bureau of Economic Geology at the University of Texas at Austin).
The CD addresses public concerns by answering common questions: What is LNG? How is it transported? What safety measures are in place? Does LNG pose an ecological risk? Dose LNG pose a security risk?
Its factual answers are informative and specific without being adversarial. They remind viewers that LNG is simply natural gas in liquid form. Slick, professional video shows LNG being poured into water and into a beaker and evaporating. It demonstrates how LNG vapors channeled away from the capped beaker can be ignited without exploding.
In response to security concerns about LNG, the presentation stresses the layers of governmental and industry oversight and control and the exotic materials and extensive training that ensure safe handling of LNG.
It doesn’t note, however, that no liquefaction plant, tanker, or regasification terminal has ever come under terrorist attack or that any such attack would be unlikely to result in catastrophic explosion. LNG, given its lack of flammability and pressure, would be a poor target.
The video also fails to note that far more dangerous cargoes (motor gasoline, for example) ply the world’s waterways daily.
Perhaps these lapses are part of the effort not to be argumentative.
The other tool available to help industry educate people about LNG comes in an unlikely format: comic book.
Produced in 2006 by NYK Line, “The Grand Voyage of the Sea Camel” focuses on LNG shipping. Through 48 pages, the story line traces Jr. Third Officer Snow, a new graduate of NYK Line’s Shin-Sugita training center, on his first LNG tanker voyage from Japan to Qatar and back.
Interspersed in his narrative are basic yet technically factual explanations of what an LNG tanker does, how, and why. Included is a diagram of the tanker, its distinctive Moss tankage system, and explanations of terms and procedures.
The text explains technical functions, such as cooling down the loading arms and handling boil-off gas, as the vessel embarks to pick up a cargo from Ras Laffan.
But it’s a comic book, remember; so don’t look for subtle characterization, plot twists, or anything beyond the narrative surface. The comic book approach appeals to school kids; the technical details appeal to parents.
As propaganda, its mission is to convey how safe the operation of an LNG tanker is.
Another tool
Each organization sponsoring the CD offers it on a web site, but CLNG’s site (www.lngfacts.org) is probably the most useful, with its other information on LNG. The comic book, on the other hand, is unavailable electronically. Inquires about it may be directed to NYK Line’s North American office: 201/330-3091.
It’s important to remember that both products must, by their natures, present simplistic, highly positive messages. Both, however, can be useful in the right situations with the right audiences.
At the same time, other tools that employ other media are available to make LNG’s case. Worth noting is Oil & Gas Journal’s highly accessible, technically accurate wall poster, published in 2005, that depicts a typical North American LNG terminal. A complementary narrative explains unloading and regasification processes.
All these tools can combat the ignorance that breed the fear that leads to poor energy policy decisions. Industry should make use of them.
