LNG TERMINAL OPENS IN BAJA

Here is how the West will get gas from the Third World for the foreseeable future:

Mexico inaugurates first liquefied natural gas terminal
October 25, 2006 (MarketWatch)

- Mexican President Vicente Fox inaugurated Wednesday Mexico's first liquefied natural gas terminal located at the Gulf coast port of Altamira.
- The terminal - a joint venture of Royal Dutch/Shell, France's Total SA, and Mitsui & Co. of Japan - will supply power stations in the region with up to 500 million cubic feet a day of natural gas, the state-owned power utility Comision Federal de Electricidad, or CFE, said…
- The LNG terminal has two tanks, each with a capacity of 150,000 cubic meters of LNG, a regasification plant, and a gas delivery system.

- Fox also inaugurated a 1,121-megawatt power plant built by Spanish concern Iberdrola as an independent power producer, and a 130-kilometer natural gas pipeline operated by TransCanada that will carry gas from the LNG terminal to the power plant…
- Although Mexican state oil monopoly Petroleos Mexicanos, or Pemex, is currently producing a record 5.3 billion cubic feet a day of natural gas, the country remains a net importer of the fuel.
- The Altamira terminal is Mexico's first LNG import facility, although others are planned on the Pacific coast. San Diego-based Sempra Energy plans to start operations of its LNG plant near Ensenada, Baja California, in early 2008. The CFE is also tendering contracts for another down the coast at Manzanillo.

And here is why it is big money:

World demand for natural gas to exceed oil by 2020: report
Xinhua, October 29, 2006 (People’s Daily Online)

- The world demand for natural gas would increase in the coming decades and exceed the demand for oil by 4.4 percent yearly until 2020, a report issued by Kuwait- based Global Investment House said…
- The report also predicted that the proportion of world natural gas to total global energy would rise to 28 percent in 2030 from 2005's 23.5 percent…
- It revealed that Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states held 25 percent of the world's proven natural gas reserves as early as the end of 2005…Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Kuwait were among the 20 largest countries in natural gas reserves worldwide…

Which means there will be a need to move the gas to big consumers, which is why LNG terminals and pipelines will be so important.