据普氏能源资讯2019年8月20日休斯顿报道,大规模液化天然气(LNG)液化和出口设施时下正在帮助书写全球对美国天然气储量需求的故事。但这种天然气还有一个新的需求因素:小规模设施把LNG输送到原本很少开发的市场,并为这种清洁燃料找到新的用途。
通常年产能不足100万吨的小规模LNG厂时下正在美国各地涌现,为利基市场提供服务,比如向远洋船舶提供符合IMO标准的船用燃料,满足调峰需求以及为附近加勒比海地区国家不断增长的出口市场提供服务。
这些小规模LNG设施的选址和建造比那些世界级的大规模设施更快和更便宜。建设成本只有数百万美元而不是动辄数十亿美元,而建设时间只需数个月而不是数年。
较小规模的LNG厂几乎可以建在任何地方,这样就可以在天然气生产或市场附近选址。可以用卡车或轮船运输所产LNG。时机似乎也不错,特朗普政府正在寻求制定一项新规则,允许通过铁路长距离运送LNG。
李峻 编译自 Platts
原文如下:
Small-scale LNG projects make market inroads in US
Large-scale LNG liquefaction and export facilities are helping to write the demand story for US natural gas reserves. But there is a newer demand factor for that gas: small-scale facilities sending LNG to otherwise little-tapped markets and finding new applications for the fuel.
Small LNG plants, usually with production capacities of less than 1 million mt/year, are springing up across the US to service niche markets, such as providing IMO-compliant bunker fuel to oceangoing vessels, meeting peak-shaving demand and serving a growing export market in the nearby Caribbean.
These small facilities can be sited and built more quickly and cheaply than their behemoth world-class cousins. Construction costs range into the millions rather than billions and construction takes months rather than years.
The smaller plants can be built almost anywhere, allowing siting near gas production or near markets. Containerized shipment can be by truck or vessel. The timing also seems right. The Trump administration is pursuing a rulemaking to allow long-distance shipment of LNG by rail.