North America braces for 'tsunami' of LNG imports: analyst

Houston (Platts)--27Jan2004

North American is bracing for a "tsunami" of liquefied natural gas imports, which will have a profound impact on the continents gas market structure, according to speakers at an LNG conference in Houston Tuesday. "There's a tsunami of LNG tankers approaching North America," said Hill Huntington, executive director of the Stanford Energy Modeling Forum, at the fourth annual LNG Economics & Technology Conference. With approximately 40 projects on the drawing board to bring LNG into North American markets, Huntington said, "There is a potential to overbuild." David Sweet, executive director of the International LNG Alliance, said that non-traditional gas sources will rapidly increase as a proportion of the total gas market, while supplies from more traditional supply basins will contract or stay flat. According to some estimates, LNG and arctic gas combined will account for 20-25% of the US gas market by 2020, he said.