Japan's LNG use has been expanding at such a rate that its gas-fired power capacity is working at its outer limits and more last-resort thermal generation from oil is increasing, while high-priced LNG cargo purchases are biting a bigger chunk out of the national wealth.
Nakilat-Keppel Offshore and Marine, the Qatar-based carrier repair yard, says it has seven LNG carriers drydocked at the facility for scheduled maintenance and overhauls.
The Swedish shipping company, Stena Bulk, plans to spin off its small LNG carrier fleet from the main business and expand to about eight carriers under the banner Stena LNG.
Dominion, developer of the planned Cove Point LNG export plant in Maryland that would be an outlet for surplus US natural gas from the Marcellus Shale and other sources, said it filed a lawsuit to confirm its construction rights and to head off delaying actions by environmentalists.
LNG player Repsol has cancelled 10 cargo deliveries to Argentina scheduled for the peak demand season starting next month following the government's seizure of the Spanish company's majority stake in former national oil company YPF.
Twelve US LNG export projects are now in the permitting process or engineering phase after Southern LNG revealed its intention to build liquefaction facilities and become an exporter from its Elba Island facility near Savannah in the state of Georgia.
Chilean energy supplier GasAtacama is considering its own floating LNG import terminal in northern Chile if it can secure US LNG exports, and which would be the South American country's third import facility.
Free ReadAustralian Prime Minister Julia Gillard carried out the ground-breaking on the $34 billion Ichthys LNG project at the site of the planned liquefaction plant at Blaydin Point, near the port of Darwin in the Northern Territory, and contrasted the nation's LNG boom with the currency crisis gripping Europe. The joint…
Spot and short-term LNG trade has soared to almost 1,000 cargoes per annum and now accounts for more than a quarter LNG trade worldwide.
It's official, the United Kingdom is the world's third-largest LNG importer - changing the trading environment for ever in the largest European natural gas market - as imports elsewhere in the region fell or were static because of the recession and euro crisis.