New Entrants Onto The World's LNG Stage

Introduction

Long before the International Energy Agency declared the world to be poised to enter the golden age of [natural] gas,¹ energy analysts were busily reviewing data and peering at maps of the planet. The world was indeed undergoing a dramatic paradigm shift with announcements of significant conventional and unconventional gas discoveries becoming a regular event. However, these discoveries have only served to underscore the fundamental commercial challenge of how best to monetize these resources in a timely fashion and on reasonable commercial terms.

Ever since the early design work of Godfrey Cabot and his 1915 patent for a river barge capable of transporting liquefied natural gas (LNG)² the ability to transport natural gas in liquid form has helped to unlock distant natural gas reserves previously considered stranded. Today, announcements about newly proposed LNG projects appear almost weekly in industry journals and newspapers as states and private