LNG

By Patti Schom-Moffatt, Director of Consultation and Communications, Kitimat LNG Ltd.
An LNG terminal project proposed for northern British Columbia has taken a major step forward to become North America’s first West Coast facility with an Agreement in Principle between the project company and the region’s Haisla First Nation tribe.

Kitimat LNG Inc., a Canadian energy infrastructure company, is proposing to build, own and operate an LNG receiving terminal located north of Vancouver.

Two key projects on the US east coast and Canada’s Pacific coast tap into tribal power

The Passamaquoddy tribe of Maine will earn millions of dollars a year under a lease

Canada’s Haislas say their deal is a model for the upholding of Aboriginal rights

By John McKay

Halliburton, the largest energy services company in the US and a key LNG contractor, will release details in the next couple of weeks about the future of its KBR business.

The company is likely to announce that some parts of the business will be sold off and a separate company is expected to emerge from the engineering and construction unit that could be worth as much as $6 billion.

Halliburton is pushing forward with a plan muted since 2004 to sell KBR to investors as a separate company. It will start the process with a sale to investors in about six months’ time of 20 percent of KBR in an initial public offering.

By Philip R. Weems Partner King & Spalding LLP

This article is the second in a three-part series examining the evolution of long-term LNG sales contracts. The first part of the series addressed trends and issues in the 1960s and 1970s. In this issue the author highlights some of the key features of such contracts in the 1980s and 1990s, many driven at least in part by the rise in project financed liquefaction facilities and the increased number of players in the market. The final part of this series will address trends and issues in the 2000s.

The island state’s latest addition to the Atlantic LNG complex is best described in terms of the national sport, cricket, writes Linda Hutchinson-Jafar in Port of Spain

Trinidad and Tobago, which is about the size of the US state of Delaware, has been pumping out LNG for the US market since the 1990s, but the first cargo from its new Train 4 was delivered to the UK last month, underlining the tiny nation’s emergence as a market-leading Atlantic Basin supplier.

Saifullah Jamudin and Suhaimi Manaf, Malaysia LNG Tiga

This article shares the process control knowledge from the 2003 start-up of Malaysia LNG Tiga and the operational experience of the condensate stabilizer and demethanizer columns

The LNG complex at Bintulu on the island of Borneo in the Malaysian state of Sarawak comprises three LNG plants operated by national oil and gas company Petronas, through its Malaysia LNG arm.

BG Group of the UK, one of the world’s most active LNG players, is likely to boost deliveries to the US during 2006 as the biggest European capacity holder in regasification terminals there, and as it secures more off-take this year from Trinidad and Egypt.

The UK company cheered investors when it issued a very upbeat earnings statement earlier this month, with fourth-quarter profit more than doubling to a higher-than-forecast £504 million ($878M) and LNG operating profit trebling for the quarter and rising by 87 percent for the full year.

A round-up of latest events, company statements, industry reports and people in the news

Josef Rötzer, Hamish Douglas, Helmut Maurer
Dywidag International, Munich

The investigation of containments for the storage of liquefied natural gas has to be extended to their behaviour under blast wave conditions, dependent on the risk prevailing on the site.
As in the case of earthquakes (See LNG journal July/August 2005), the investigation of the blast load case must consider the complete tank structure.

Leading members of the Society of Petroleum Engineers believe the US government’s estimates of natural gas usage are far too conservative.

This paper was prepared for presentation at the 2006 Society of Petroleum Engineers Annual Technical Conference held in San Antonio, Texas, U.S.A., from September 24–27, 2006.

Natural gas prices in the US and elsewhere are expected to be kept at reasonable levels for decades to come, thanks to the development of alternative supplies such as liquefied natural gas.

However, regulatory policies, concerned environmental groups, and industrial inaction are expected to create choke points in the supply chain.