A tanker carrying the LNG for BP, from Algerian government producer Sonatrach, sailed into a new import terminal built at the Isle of Grain on the Thames Estuary near London.
Energy Contracts Company’s Niall Trimble said the shipment was of major importance, given that LNG would provide a significant portion of Britain’s future gas needs.
Trimble estimated imported LNG could meet between 20-25% of British gas demand by 2008-09 and 30-40% by 2012 as North Sea fields continued to falter.
Britain stopped importing LNG in the mid-1980s as increasing production from North Sea fields more than met its gas needs.
The Isle of Grain is the first of three LNG import terminals to be built in Britain, Europe's largest gas market. The other terminals, both to be built at Milford Haven in south Wales, are expected to be importing LNG from Egypt and Qatar from 2007.
Trimble predicted the UK would become one of Europe's significant LNG markets, along with Spain, France and Belgium. Britain currently consumes around 100 billion cubic metres of gas a year.
Britain is also importing large amounts of gas via subsea pipelines - a link with Belgium is being expanded and pipelines from North Sea producers Norway and the Netherlands are under construction.
