In Well-Thought-Out Scheme, Multiple LNG Plants Planned For Sinking, Disappearing US Gulf Coast
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LNG liquefaction and export terminals take natural gas and super-cool it to minus-260 degrees Fahrenheit, converting it to a liquid. In the process, which is extremely energy-intensive, the product shrinks in volume by about 600 times. The LNG is stored in giant, chilled and insulated tanks. Then, it is put on 1,000-foot-long vessels that move the LNG to markets in Asia, South America or Europe, and can hold enough gas to heat and power tens of thousands of homes for a year.
The industry has emerged in the last 15 years after new drilling methods for extracting natural gas from underground shale formations, called fracking, proliferated and produced a glut of cheap natural gas that can be sold at a premium overseas. Much of the activity can be found along the 250 miles between New Orleans and Port Arthur, Texas, with Southwest Louisiana and Port Arthur emerging as a major LNG export hub. The low-lying region, where the land is losing a battle with the sea, has been slammed by some of the most deadly and powerful hurricanes on record in the last couple of decades. They have had storms with names that, around here, anyway, will never be forgotten—Katrina and Rita in 2001, Harvey in 2017, Laura and Delta within six weeks of each other in 2020, and Ida last year. Piles of debris remain stacked along roadsides and many homes still have blue tarps on their damaged roofs.
In Plaquemines Parish, 20 miles south of New Orleans, dozens of backhoes and multiple cranes reveal the start of construction on a new LNG terminal, Venture Global’s Plaquemines LNG. In Port Arthur, Texas, ExxonMobil and its partner QatarEnergy are turning what was originally intended to be an LNG import terminal into an export terminal, Golden Pass LNG—a show of how markets can turn on a relative dime. Port Arthur has one other export terminal planned, Port Arthur LNG, proposed by Sempra Infrastructure.
Cheniere Energy has its Sabine Pass terminal located about as far south and west in Louisiana as possible, directly across the Sabine River from Port Arthur. It, too, converted what had been intended to be an LNG import facility, giving it a head start on production. It’s the largest LNG export terminal in the country and has, according to the company, loaded more than 1,000 vessels since 2016.
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https://insideclimatenews.org/news/25032022/biden-lng-europe-louisiana-texas/