Steams rises from the Kawasaki natural gas power station in Kawasaki city, Kanagawa prefecture, south of Tokyo on August 25, 2011.
Japan’s Fukushima disaster, with the subsequent shutdown of most Japanese nuclear power plants, mean US exports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Asia will be profitable to 2020 – but maybe not beyond. Keep reading →
Coal that’s being priced out of the US market by cheap natural gas is being burned instead in Europe, where it’s cheaper than natural gas with prices traditionally linked to oil.
The resulting pressure is beginning to break down those links, and the differential between natural gas prices in the US and Europe could diminish significantly before any US liquefied natural gas (LNG) can be exported. Keep reading →
Widening of the Panama Canal, due to be completed in 2014, will allow most LNG tankers to transit the isthmus and make natural gas from Gulf of Mexico ports “instantly economic” to transport to high-price Asian markets.
That’s key for multiple proposals to build plants to liquefy and ship surplus US natural gas, according to experts at a Brookings Institution seminar Jan. 24. Most proposals are for existing but unused LNG import terminals on the Texas and Louisiana coasts. Giant LNG tankers, like the largest modern freighters, are too big for the existing Panama locks. Keep reading →
