LIQUEFIED NATURAL GAS (LNG)

Technical Advisory

The technologies employed in the liquefaction, shipping and regasification processes of the LNG chain have been constantly developing over many years. This development process has increased in pace over recent times due to the rapid expansion of LNG industry, as technical innovations have been sought to reduce costs and increase capacities.

Liquefaction. The market for liquefaction technology has been monopolised by APCI's Mixed Refrigerant process, which has proven to be highly reliable over the long term, although ConocoPhillips' Cascade process has been used in a number of relatively recent developments, such as. Atlantic LNG (Trinidad) and ELNG (Egypt). However, a number of new technologies are now entering the market which may provide cost or efficiency benefits, but also generates an element of risk in terms of the long term reliability and operability.

Shipping. A typical modern LNG vessel in service has a 135,000 to 145,000 cubic meter carrying capacity. As a result of plans to transport large volumes of Qatari LNG to markets in Western Europe and the US, engineering designs have been developed for vessels of up to 260 thousand cubic meters. Although increasing vessel size will improve project economics, the size of new LNG carriers is limited by a number of parameters, notably berthing conditions and storage capacities at terminals.

Regasification. Although the impacts of technological developments have perhaps been less obvious in relation to regasification than with liquefaction or shipping, there are important cost, energy and environmental considerations to be made in terms of the different technologies available, namely open rack vaporizers (ORVs), submerged combustion vaporizers (SCVs), ambient air-heated vaporizers and shell and tube vaporizers

Nexant Services

Nexant is widely familiar with the technological developments throughout the LNG chain and their main implications for project development. We can provide analysis of the exposure to risk that may result as a consequence of the current implementation of new liquefaction technologies or as a result of particularly challenging operating environments. We are also extremely familiar with the range of regasification technologies, again focusing on the technological, commercial or environmental impacts of technology implementation.

Nexant maintains an LNG shipping database to provide details of existing and under-order LNG tanker fleets, including technical developments, capacity, contractual commitments, trade routes and capital costs. We provide analysis on current shipping market developments and likely future developments, particularly cost.

Selected Project Experience

  • Technical and commercial advisor for LNG liquefaction plan due diligence—West Africa
  • LNG technology comparison study—Latin America
  • LNG project EPC monitoring—West Africa
  

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