6 RESULTADOS Y DISCUSIÓN
6.5 Determinación de patrones químicos
A SIGTTO/GIIGNL commemorative issue LNG shipping at 50I 87I 87
for output from Trains 2 and 3, 1.5 mta of LNG was earmarked for the reactivated Elba Island terminal in Georgia. As 1999 was drawing to a close, the partners in the Trinidad project were pushing ahead with plans to market the output from a possible fourth 3 mta train at Point Fortin.
On the other side of the Atlantic the US$3.8 billion, two-train Nigeria LNG (NLNG) project finally came onstream in October 1999, some 34 years after it was first proposed by Conch. The 1976- built, 122,000m3LNG Lagos departed the Bonny Island export terminal at Finima in Rivers State with the inaugural cargo, for delivery to Montoir in France on behalf of Italy’s Enel.
The other customers of NLNG Trains 1 and 2 were Enagas of Spain, Botas of Turkey and Transgas of Portugal. Over the following years the Enel cargoes were discharged at the Montoir terminal in France due to lack of capacity at Italy’s then only LNG import terminal – at Panigaglia terminal near La Spezia. Under this arrangement France made an equivalent amount of pipeline gas available to Italy to compensate.
The srcinal partners in NLNG were the Nigerian government, Shell, Elf and Agip. On commissioning, each of the two trains at Bonny Island had a capacity of 2.7 mta. The growing demand for LNG and the availability of significant gas reserves in the vicinity of Bonny Island ensured that the decision to construct a third train at the terminal was taken six months before the first two came onstream.
In the event the third, similar- sized train was to be commissioned in November 2002, three months ahead of schedule. Once underway, the build-up at Bonny Island was rapid. By February 2001 NLNG had loaded its 100th export cargo and the 400th cargo was discharged at Montoir in September 2003, again byLNG Lagos.
Spain, a major purchaser of LNG from Trinidad and the first two Nigerian trains, also made a major commitment in terms of the output from NLNG Train 3, signing up to take 75 per cent of the 2.7 mta that would be produced by the unit. Like their counterparts in Trinidad, the companies behind the Nigerian project were quick to plan even farther ahead, having tabled proposals for Trains 4 and 5 at Bonny before the end of 1999.
In August 1999, as part of the build- up of the fleet needed to carry Nigerian cargoes, Bonny Gas Transport, a
subsidiary of Nigeria LNG, ordered two 138,000m3 spherical tank LNG carriers
at Hyundai Heavy Industries. These were the first LNG carriers to be ordered in Korea for foreign owners.
Algeria, the first country to export LNG, also had taken steps to improve its offering to the Atlantic Basin LNG market in the late 1990s. The country’s export volume had dropped to 12.8 million tonnes in 1995 and its ageing production facilities were in need of a revamp. The wide- ranging refurbishment programme implemented by the government in response succeeded in boosting overall production capacity back up to the 21 mta level by 1999. A good level of utilisation was achieved, as Algeria despatched 18.8 mt to customers around the Atlantic Rim and in the Mediterranean over the course of the year.
At the end of 1999 the world LNG carrier fleet stood at 114 vessels while there were 28 ships on order at nine different shipyards. Some of the consultancies specialising in LNG trade forecasting got caught up in the buoyant mood prevailing in 1999 and predicted, in their optimistic case scenario, that there would be a need for a further 100 new LNG carriers over the coming decade, bringing the fleet up to the 250-ship mark by 2010. In the event the pundits were not optimistic enough, as there were 350 vessels in the global LNG carrier fleet by the end of 2009. To be fair, there was no way of predicting what a topsy-turvy decade it would turn out to be. No one was in a position to fully appreciate either the extent to which the hunger for gas would drive the market or the ability
of Qatar’s ambitious export programme to meet that demand. The US shale gas revolution, unforeseen in 1999, turned out to have a bigger impact still.
The Atlantic Basin LNG market did indeed blossom during the first decade of the new millennium. Shipments to the US, Spain and the UK in particular surged and three new liquefaction plants were built – two in Egypt and one in Norway – to help cater for the growing regional demand. Furthermore Qatar brought six new 7.8 mta Super Trains into service and a significant part of the output from these facilities was earmarked for shipment through the Suez Canal to Europe and the US.
The honeymoon was short-lived, however . The exploitation of shale gas resources in the US meant that the country’s imports peaked in 2007, at 16.2 mt, and then fell away sharply. Europe’s imports did not top out until 2011, when they reached 64.8 mt. The continent’s purchases have slumped steadily since then, as the recession following the 2008 banking crisis bit deeply and soaring Asian demand and gas prices sucked available cargoes eastwards. Europe’s LNG imports fell to 33.9 mt in 2013, a nine- year low.
The Atlantic Basin LNG trades over the coming decade will be very much different from those envisaged when the plants in Trinidad and Nigeria commenced operations. The US is poised to become a major LNG exporter while Europe is struggling to rediscover its appetite for LNG. No doubt European imports will revive but, failing a geopolitical crisis of some sort, it will be a long, drawn out process. MC
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uperlatives are required to describe every aspect of Qatar’s involvement with LNG. The country possesses the largest single concentration of gas yet discovered, the North Dome field, and has built the world’s biggest LNG export complex, at Ras Laffan, to bring that gas to world markets.The cargoes are transported by Nakilat, owner and operator of the world’s largest fleet of LNG carriers. Furthermore that fleet features 31 Q-flex ships of 216,000m3 and 14 Q-max ships
of 266,000m3, the only LNGCs over
200,000m3 in size.
Amongst the 14 liquefaction units operating at Ras Laffan on behalf of Qatargas and RasGas, the country’s two LNG exporters, are six Super Trains, each able to produce 7.8 million tonnes per annum (mta) of LNG. This is the highest capacity of any such production facility in the industry. Ras Laffan is able to
produce an aggregate 77 mta, three times more than Malaysia, its next nearest rival at the top of the LNG exporters league. The port has been operating at, or close to, capacity in recent years, despatching approximately 1,000 LNG cargoes per annum to customers worldwide.
The Gulf emirate’s LNG adventure began in December 1996 when the 135,000m3 LNG carrier Al Zubarah loaded
Ras Laffan’s first export cargo. Al Zubarah
is the lead tanker of a 10-ship fleet of spherical tank vessels built to deliver 6 mta of Qatari LNG to Japan over a contracted period of 25 years. Delivered by Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding,
Al Zubarah was the 49th LNG carrier to be built to the Kvaerner Moss spherical tank design out of a world fleet of 90 such ships in service at the time.
Chubu Electric signed up for the full output but 2 mta of the total was purchased on behalf of seven other Japanese utility companies. Although
this scheme, dubbed Qatargas 1, was the world’s most ambitious LNG shipping project at the time, it represented only the beginning of Qatar’s plans to capitalise on the North Dome gas reserves.
Even before the US$800 million Qatargas 1 grassroots complex, which featured three 2 mta liquefaction trains and three 85,000m3 storage tanks, was in
service another Ras Laffan project had been agreed. In October 1995 Korea Gas Corp (Kogas) signed a contract with Ras Laffan LNG Co (RasGas) for the purchase of 2.4 mta of Qatari LNG for 25 years commencing in 1999, and later exercised an option to purchase an additional 2.4 mta, beginning in the year 2000. The RasGas 1 complex was to feature two 3.3 mta liquefaction trains and two 140,000m3 LNG storage tanks at the port
to service the initial contract levels. The RasGas 1 project is a 70/30 joint venture between Qatar General
Petroleum Co and Mobil. The Mobil share was to become an ExxonMobil share when the two energy majors merged in 1999. ExxonMobil is also one of the shareholders in the Qatargas 1 scheme and was to hold stakes in several subsequent Ras Laffan LNG export projects mounted by Qatargas and RasGas. Qatar Petroleum possesses a controlling share in all the Qatargas and RasGas LNG export projects.
The shipping arrangements for the RasGas 1 project were to be similar to those for Qatargas 1 in that they would be the responsibility of the gas