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Cambridge Energy Research Associates (CERA) has said in a report that global LNG supply is projected to grow to a $US65 billion ($A88.2 billion) market by 2012 despite rising costs and environmental concerns.
Global LNG supply capacity would rise 60% by 2012 or sooner, based on LNG production projects currently under construction, according to CERA.
Almost half that construction is occurring on one site in Qatar alone, the CERA report said.
Meanwhile, People’s Daily Online reports that Shanghai’s Hudong China Ship Manufacturing said it would build five more LNG tankers at a cost of $160 million per tanker, to boost China’s LNG import capacity.
China’s first locally built LNG tanker was launched last year. The country’s second LNG tanker was launched in Shanghai on Monday.
LNG transported in the Chinese-made tanker, which has a carrying capacity of 147,000 cubic metres, is sealed and kept in minus 163C temperatures.
People’s Daily Online reported that there was a big market shortfall for LNG in China, saying that China’s LNG consumption only accounted for 1.9% of China’s total energy mix, which lagged behind the world’s averaged level of 25%.
CERA senior director for global LNG Michael Stoppard said CERA’s 2004 projection that the LNG industry would grow in the eight years to 2012 by the same amount as the first 40 years of its history now seemed, if anything, overly cautious.
This year, LNG trade is projected to grow 12% from the previous year, with US imports rising 25%, according to CERA.
The CERA report also said LNG projects had been hurt by rising costs, driven by higher prices across the oil and gas industry and exacerbated by shortages of specialty materials.
LNG projects are also facing opposition from residents unwilling to have a large terminal in their vicinity.
Strong local lobby grousp are fighting moves by Australian LNG producers BHP Billiton Petroleum and Woodside to build LNG terminals in California.
And last week, ConocoPhillips withdrew its application to build an LNG terminal off the Alabama coast, citing environmental concerns brought up by the state’s governor, Reuters said.
