LNG

Liquefied Natural Gas

Liquefied natural gas: volume by 600 times reduced

Natural gas is transported from the countries that produce it by either pipelines or LNG vessels. LNG vessels are large ships specially fitted for transporting LNG (liquefied natural gas). The liquefaction process consists of cooling natural gas to a temperature of –162 °C at normal atmospheric pressure. Once liquefied, the gas’s volume is 600 times smaller, making it possible to transport large amounts of energy by ship over huge distances.

 

The LNG chain

The natural gas is liquefied and stored in tanks in the producing country before being loaded into an LNG vessel. It is then transported to the destination country, where it undergoes the reverse process: the cargo is unloaded and stored in large tanks before being regasified and injected into the network as and when required.

LNG in the world

LNG currently accounts for more than 30% of international trade in natural gas and demand continues to grow. The volume of LNG trade reached 220.2 million tons in 2010, or an increase of 21.2% from 2009. The success of LNG is primarily due to the flexibility of LNG transport when compared with natural transmission by pipeline: LNG cargoes can sail to various LNG reception terminals and LNG reception terminals can receive LNG cargoes from different countries.

 

The LNG industry worldwide consists of:

  • 25 LNG production facilities - totalling 94 liquefaction trains - located in 18 countries on 5 continents. The world leader in LNG production is Qatar, followed by Indonesia, Malaysia, Australia and Algeria. LNG liquefaction capacity totaled 269.6 million tons per annum in 2010 and increased by 9.7% since 2009 thanks to, among other things, the commissioning of four new liquefaction trains in Qatar, Yemen and Peru.
  • 83 LNG receiving terminals located in 23 countries on 4 continents. Japan, Korea and Spain are currently the world's biggest LNG importers. Send-out capacity totaled 600 million tons per annum in 2010.
  • 360 LNG carriers; the combined capacity of the LNG fleet worldwide is at 51 million cubic meters and has increased by 13.3% since 2009.

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