natgas imports to ease crisis?

["Mark Jones" <jones118@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Lloyd's Register/ Lloyd-s Register forecasts 75 new LNG ships for the US
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----


Lloyd`s Register has today released the results of its extensive research
into the LNG market. Talking at the LNG conference The role of LNG in North
American and Caribbean gas supply in Washington DC, Lloyd`s Register said
that between 27 and 75 new LNG ships will be needed to satiate the demand
for LNG over the next decade in the US market alone.


---------------

>From  EIA site US Natural Gas Markets. May 2001.


LNG Trade

After nearly doubling in 1999, LNG imports continued
their robust growth in 2000 to a total of 220 billion cubic
feet, a 35-percent increase over 1999. Trinidad and
Tobago and Qatar surpassed Algeria for the first time in
2000 as suppliers of LNG to the United States. Trinidad
supplied 96 billion cubic feet of LNG, or 44 percent of
total LNG imports in 2000, and Qatar supplied 46 billion
cubic feet of LNG or 21 percent. Algeria continued to be
a major supplier of LNG among the eight nations that
export LNG to the United States, with exports totaling 44 billion
cubic feet or 20 percent of all LNG imports.

In 2000 the continental United States had two operational
LNG receiving terminals, at Everett, Massachusetts,
and Lake Charles, Louisiana. Imports into Everett
totaled 99 billion cubic feet in 2000, an increase of 3 per-cent
over 1999. Almost 81 percent of the imports
received in Everett came from Trinidad, primarily under
long-term arrangements. The Lake Charles facility
received 124 billion cubic feet, an increase of almost 85
percent over 1999. Many of the shipments to Lake
Charles were spot purchases. Algeria delivered to both
facilities, primarily under long-term arrangements.
Expansion of LNG imports is expected in the near future
as two other mothballed U.S. LNG receiving facilities
are reopened for imports. Although the Cove Point LNG
facility in Maryland has not received any shipments
since 1980, it is filing an application with the FERC to
resume importing LNG in 2002. The Elba Island termi-nal
near Savannah, Georgia, has received clearance from
the FERC to resume its LNG import activities and is
expected to begin receiving shipments in 2002.

Source: U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Fossil Energy, Natural
Gas Imports and Exports Fourth Quarter Report 2000, DOE/FE-0428 (Wash-
ington, DC).