LNG: BACK TO THE DRAWING BOARD?

If they solve all the problems, is every port going to want a facility?

GAO recommends fuller studies of LNG spill impacts
Nick Snow, March 15, 2007 (Oil and Gas Journal)

WHO
Government policymakers…need additional studies conducted examining potential problems resulting from large LNG spills, said the Government Accountability Office…there have been no large-scale LNG spills or spill experiments, GAO reported…

WHAT
US Dept. of Energy has funded a study to address large-scale LNG fires, but…it will address only 3 of the 10 top issues that a panel of GAO-assembled experts identified as potentially affecting public safety…[and not] cascading failure of LNG tanks, which [GAO] experts ranked second most important after large fire phenomena…19 LNG experts [discussed] potential consequences of a terrorist attack on an LNG tanker…[and] described the results of 6 unclassified studies of the consequences of an LNG spill…

WHEN
Year long analysis…

WHERE
It also interviewed US agencies responsible for LNG regulations and visited all four US onshore LNG import terminals and one export facility…

WHY
…to determine where new LNG terminals are to be located and how existing facilities and tankers can be protected…

QUOTES
GAO said the 19 experts agreed that the most likely public safety impact from an LNG spill would be heat from a fire, that explosions are not likely to occur in the wake of a spill unless LNG vapors are in confined spaces, and that some hazards, such as freeze burns and asphyxiation, do not threaten the public…