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Gold/Mining/Energy : LNG -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Dennis Roth who wrote (47)	1/28/2004 8:31:45 AM
From: Dennis Roth	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 919

Expert Tells Houston Conference to Expect Slow Going on Natural-Gas Ports miami.com By Dan Piller, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Texas Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News Jan. 27--HOUSTON - Although 40 terminals to receive liquefied natural gas have been proposed for U.S. seaports, including five along the Texas Gulf Coast, only a fraction of those are likely to be built this decade, an energy consultant told a conference on liquefied natural gas here Monday. "The permitting process is so long and the likelihood of objections from communities so high that we are likely to see no more than five or six LNG terminals actually built through 2010," said Sara Banaszak, director of the gas and power group at PFC Energy, a consulting group based in Washington, D.C. U.S. domestic natural gas production has been flat since 2000, and rising demand has led to supply shortfalls, Banaszak said. The threat of shortages has been blamed for spiking natural gas prices for the past two years. They jumped above $7 per thousand cubic feet more than once this winter on the spot market after years of hovering around $3. Liquefied natural gas from foreign sources, chilled to liquid form for shipment in tankers and then warmed back to vapor before going into U.S. pipelines, has emerged as a major solution to the looming shortage and volatile prices. Houston-based Cheniere LNG has received federal approval for a terminal at Freeport and has two applications pending for other facilities on the Gulf Coast. ExxonMobil has also proposed two terminals along the Gulf Coast to receive liquefied natural gas it expects to begin receiving later this decade from its multibillion-dollar project in the Middle Eastern kingdom of Qatar. Cheniere's chief financial officer, Don Torkelson, said each terminal will take up to three years to build and cost $400 million or more. The Texas Gulf Coast is considered a prime market for imported liquefied natural gas to supply feedstock for the petrochemical industry. In contrast to crude oil, natural gas is almost entirely a product of the Western Hemisphere. Just 1 percent of U.S. consumption comes from sources elsewhere. "There is no reason to believe that the gap between production and consumption will close anytime in the future," said Michelle Foss, director of the University of Houston's Institute for Energy, Law and Enterprise. "We're at the stage of growing liquefied natural gas." Foss said that one factor that could retard the growth of liquefied natural gas would be an uptick in exports of natural gas from Mexico to the United States. But he said he doubts that will happen. "Mexico will need 25 years to develop its energy resource base to be a big player in natural gas," she said. ----- To see more of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to dfw.com © 2004, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Texas. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News. LNG, XOM,

To: Dennis Roth who wrote (47)	2/18/2004 9:48:22 AM
From: Dennis Roth	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 919

Qatar to pursue mega gas projects gulfnews.com Abu Dhabi \| By Nadim Kawach, Bureau Chief \| 18/02/2004 \| Print this page Qatar has reassured world gas markets it will push ahead with mega projects to climb over 36 million tonnes to meet the fast growing global consumption and become the world's number one in LNG production. Qatari Oil Minister Abdullah bin Hamad Al Attiyah said a staggering $60 billion could be pumped into development and expansion projects to tap the Gulf country's oil deposits and its mammoth gas wealth, the third largest in the world. Al Attiyah made the pledge at an economic conference that was opened on Sunday in Doha, where former US Vice-President Al Gore and scores of industrialists gathered to view Qatar's massive hydrocarbon plans. "Investments pumped and those needed to be channelled into such projects could exceed $60 billion… our plans in the gas sector are to go beyond 36 million tonnes per year in the next decade," said the Minister. [ follow original link to see table in correct format - DPR ] gulfnews.com QATAR'S LNG EXPORTS (Million tonnes) 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 Qatargas 7.5 8.3 9.3 9.6 9.4 15.8 15.8 Rasgas 6 9.2 11.4 17.8 20.2 20.2 20.2 Source: Official Qatari data GN graphic Industry sources said the expansion of existing liquefied natural gas projects meant Qatar would overtake Indonesia within 10 years to become the world's top LNG supplier and ensure a fixed income in the long-term. Qatar currently produces nearly 18 million tonnes of LNG and the expansions involve the installation of additional production trains with a similar capacity. Qatar's original plans were to produce between 15-20 million tonnes of LNG per year but it decided to sharply exceed that level after it massively revised upwards its proven gas wealth at its giant North Field, the world's largest gas reservoir. The expansions were also prompted by strong gas demand from Asia and other areas, mainly Japan, South Korea and India. Five years ago, the North Field's deposits were officially estimated at around 8.5 trillion cubic metres but they are now put at as high as 25.5 trillion cubic metres, the third largest natural gas resources after those of Russia and Iran. Qatar's main LNG producers are Rasgas and Qatargas, which have been launched over the past 15 years to tap the North Field. Last year, Rasgas's output was estimated at around 9.2 million tonnes, while Qatargas produced nearly 8.3 million tonnes. Expansion plans will lift Rasgas's production to nearly 20.2 million tonnes in 2008 while Qatargas's output is expected to climb to around 15.8 million tonnes a year. Qatar's LNG industry was given a strong push in October when the government and its foreign partners signed a $12 billion contract with the world's largest oil company, Exxon Mobil, for the supply of 15.6 million tonnes of LNG annually to the US market. Deliveries are due to begin in 2008-09. Qatar is a small Opec oil producer, with crude reserves of around five billion barrels and output of nearly 700,000 barrels per day. Its oil income was estimated at around $5.5 billion in 2002 and $7.4 billion last year. LNG projects are expected to sharply expand its income and its gross domestic product, which has already started to record the fastest growth rate in the Middle East. It surged by around five per cent in 2002 to $17.4 billion and was expected to have jumped by more than eight per cent last year. With a population of just 650,000, LNG ventures have turned Qatar into the richest country in the Middle East and one of the wealthiest nations, with a per capita income of around $29,000 last year.