Caribbean Energy Information System (CEIS) January 2012 petroleum import. The question brought to mind in recent times is whether LNG is the future for the petroleum industry? Trinidad and Tobago has been the Caribbean’s top producer of Natural Gas and has developed the industry to the point where approximately 70% of the United States demand for LNG has been met by T&T. LNG from Trinidad and Tobago has also been transported to other parts of the world and the product is also dispatched across the globe through re-gasification facilities in other countries such as Canada, Chile, the Dominican Republic, and Argentina. In the Dominican Republic, the use of LNG has been rapidly increasing where the product now forms approximately one third of the countries energy matrix with increasing use in the transportation sector. LNG Being Loaded Onto a Tanker Source: Center for Liquefied Natural Gas
The development of the Natural Gas Industry for years has been linked to oil prices and the demand for oil particularly in the more developed countries. However, the commodity has not been a globally traded one mainly due to the fact that the product was primarily moved by pipelines hence creating fairly distinct prices and regional markets across the globe. With the development of Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) in 1964, the framework has been dramatically altered as
the product can now be transported across the globe without the need for pipeline infrastructure. LNG takes up much less space, approximately 1/600th the volume of the same amount of gaseous natural gas. This allows it to be shipped much more efficiently via ocean tankers thereby creating options outside of Crude Oil as a primary
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The success of the natural gas industry in Trinidad & Tobago has led to a boom in the demand for LNG worldwide. In many other countries across the globe, the product is increasingly being used with particular focus on the electricity and transport sectors. This increased demand is also partly due to continued on page 2/ CONTACT US
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is a monthly Bulletin which highlights petroleum issues affecting or relevant to the Caribbean, international developments that may affect the region’s way of life and movements in oil prices and retail prices for fuel regionally.