NPRA ’05: US industry to bring 8-10 LNG sites on-line

04 April 2005 23:48  [Source: ICIS news]

SAN ANTONIO, Texas (CNI)--The US energy industry likely will build 8-10 coastal import terminals for liquefied natural gas (LNG) over the next 15 years despite opposition by many US coastal communities, a top LNG official said here Monday.

 

Speaking on the sidelines at the 30th annual International Petrochemical Conference (IPC) today, ExxonMobil Development Co vice president Mark Sikkel told CNI that the sharp increase in costs for North American natural gas in the last several years has itself stimulated a rash of LNG terminal proposals.  He said 40-50 terminal proposals are now at various stages of permitting, but only 8-10 of those projects likely will be built.

 

“There’s a lot involved in building an LNG terminal, in addition to the cost,” Sikkel noted. “It involves a complex and comprehensive permitting process, market evaluation and of course community support.”

 

Sikkel suggested that of the as many as ten LNG terminals to be brought to fruition on US shores, many of those will probably be on the US Gulf Coast, in large part because of a more receptive public. “People on the Gulf Coast are more familiar with this industry than those on the East and West Coasts,” he said.

 

Even so, Sikkel said, the industry must work to improve public perceptions of LNG operations. “We’ve been shipping and offloading LNG for 45 years now, involving some 40,000 LNG tanker voyages and operations at some 40 terminals worldwide.”

 

“We want people to understand the high level of safety and security that these facilities have,” he said, adding: “But of course there are some people who remain opposed to LNG terminal development because they are opposed to all development.”

 

“We have every confidence that these terminals can be designed, built and operated safely,” Sikkel said. “They can and will be operated safely, and these natural gas supplies are very important for our domestic industry.”

 

The availability and pricing of natural gas is a major focus of this year’s IPC.

 

If the US does see completion of as many as ten additional LNG terminals, three of those could well be projects of ExxonMobil Development (EMD). Sikkel noted that three EMD LNG terminal projects are in the final stages of permitting.  One onshore facility is to be built at Sabine Pass, Texas near Houston, and a second EMD terminal is scheduled for Corpus Christi, Texas. The third EMD LNG terminal will be an offshore facility.

 

Sikkel said construction is likely to begin on the first of EMD’s onshore facilities in the third quarter this year.

 

Sponsored by the National Petrochemical & Refiners Association (NPRA), the three-day IPC continues through Tuesday.

 

(The CNI newsroom at NPRA’s IPC is in Salon C, Marriott Riverwalk Hotel; Tel. +1 210 299 6585.)

By: Joe Kamalick
+1 713 525 2653

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