Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
The usual set-up costs
associated with any gas field development.
The liquefaction process
which involves passing gas through
something that is called a “train” but only resembles a railway train in
being a long series of chillers and liquefiers of the gas. Units of LNG
plants are known as “trains”.
Transporting it by sea
in cryogenic or specially insulated tankers.
Warming the natural gas
in a re-gasification terminal.
The cost of this LNG chain can be anywhere between $10bn and $20bn
for an project generating 8 million tonnes per year, of which the lique-
faction process accounts for about half the expense. It is therefore not
surprising that the LNG business is still dominated by the oil majors plus
one or two gas specialists such as BG Group of the UK (which was once
the upstream division of the old British Gas). However, there is one gas
exporting country, Qatar, which has built and owns a whole LNG chain
including tankers and a re-gasification terminal in the UK.
The sphere of a liquefied natural gas tank at a plant near Charleston, South
Carolina, destined to be fitted into a tanker ship.
