LNG

Shell International Trading and Shipping Co. has obtained Green Passports from Lloyd’s Register for all 25 of the liquefied natural gas carriers in its managed fleet.


The Green Passports were awarded by Lloyd’s Register following surveys and audits and a review of the relevant documentation.


Shell and Lloyd’s Register have led the way in the application and adoption of the Green Passport. Shell’s LNG carrier “Granatina” was the world’s first vessel to be awarded this recognition.


The Green Passport is a document that contains an inventory of all the materials onboard a ship that require careful handling or special awareness.

Donald A. Norman , Thomas J. Duesterberg , US Manufacturers’ Alliance

As recently as the 1980s and 1990s, much of the industrial strength of the United States derived from its abundant supplies and efficient production of energy resources. LNG promises to be an important source for new gas supplies in the US, as well as throughout the world.

Given the difficulties in gaining approval to develop new natural gas production in areas
where gas reserves are thought to be significant and, given the expected time frame before a pipeline from Alaska’s North Slope is constructed, LNG is our best hope for adding measurably to US gas supplies in the short-to-medium term.

LNG imports into the US totaled 631 billion cubic feet in 2005, or 2.8 percent of total natural gas consumption.

Michel Vache DORIS Engineering (France)

DORIS Engineering is pioneering the development of Gravity Base Structures for LNG terminals.

The French company is building on its work on other platforms designed for the exploitation over the past 40 years of offshore oil and gas resources, such as FPSOs (Floating Production Storage Offloading), TLPs (Tension Legs Platform), subsea risers in deep waters, and marine operations.

One possible answer to the growing demand for natural gas is offshore LNG import terminals installed away from the shore, but as close as possible to the consumers, such as LNG-GBSs (Liquefied Natural Gas on Gravity Base Structures), FSRUs (Floating Storage Re-gasification Units), or special storage, re-gasification and offloading systems.

The government realizes that LNG market deregulation and third-party access to LNG terminals and transmission lines is inevitable

The cooperation between Kogas and Vopak sits well within Kogas’s strategy to expand its LNG terminal business overseas

David Hayes, Seoul

South Korean government plans to reorganize the LNG import industry are expected to result in a far-reaching restructuring of the domestic wholesale natural gas market and an increased demand for LNG.

A number of large LNG consumers already have formed two new consortia to import their own LNG in future, while waiting for the government to announce detailed plans to create the new import market.

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

LNG Journal Middle East Editor

Egyptian LNG turned a natural gas find into a commercial LNG venture in record time as it set an industry benchmark by delivering the first cargo from Egypt just six years after the first gas field discovery.

ELNG is a partnership between the Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Co., the Egyptian General Petroleum Co, BG Group of the UK, Petronas of Malaysia and Gaz de France.

The natural gas liquefaction and export project is located at Idku, in the Nile Delta, 50 kilometres east of the city of Alexandria.

In May 1995, the Egyptian General Petroleum Corp. signed a concession agreement with affiliates of BG and Edison SpA of Italy, giving the two foreign partners the right to explore for hydrocarbons in the Mediterranean deep water, north east of Alexandria.

This is the first part in a two-part series covering credit rating analysis of LNG projects worldwide

LNG shipping projects associated with supply chains in countries such as Russia, Nigeria and Indonesia will find investment-grade ratings elusive

Terry A Pratt, New York , Jan Willem Plantagie, Frankfurt, Karim Nassif, London, Michael K Vernier New York

Financing for liquid natural gas shipping projects has the potential to reach investment-grade credit ratings.

The strong global demand for LNG attracts huge investment for construction and operation of LNG liquefaction plants, LNG ships and LNG regasification terminals.

Hans Laetz in Malibu, California

It may not be as dramatic as the 1849 Gold Rush, but the jockeying has intensified in the race to become the gateway for liquefied natural gas into the California energy market.

A total of eight LNG receiving projects are in various stages of public announcement or regulatory review along the California, USA, and Baja California, Mexico, coasts. They are all within 175 miles of Los Angeles.

Construction is almost a third complete at the West Coast’s first terminal, south of the border, down Mexico way. And two recent proposals have entered the crowded field in which regulators figure only one or two LNG terminals will see completion.

Energy suppliers are hungry to crack the North American market, where natural gas prices are linked by market forces to oil price levels.

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

By Our Asia-Pacific Editor

The delivery of China’s first cargo of liquefied natural gas later this month will start a new era in power generation for the world’s most populous nation and will be another big step for Woodside Energy, operator and part owner of the LNG supplier, the North West Shelf Venture in Western Australia.

Although still a mid-sized exploration and production company by global standards, Woodside is establishing a growing presence in the world energy industry.

In 52 years Woodside has grown from a tiny Australian company which evolved out of the 1950s hunt for oil among the oil seeps in south-eastern Australia to being selected as the first supplier of LNG to China.