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been processed and then regional perspective and not buoy locations. There are a couple constraints
condensed into a liquid at from a national one. Some 2. Fast time to market, all through the value chain
almost atmospheric pressure countries benefit from because the infrastructure of from production to distribu-
by cooling it down to extraordinary geological or Exmar is limited and therefo- tion. If the market needs more
approximately -163 degrees environmental situations re quickly put in place. The gas, you need to enhance the
Celsius. LNG is transported which significantly lower site in Teesside, UK, is a clear entire system. For instance, in
by specially designed cryo- the investment costs in wind example of this. Europe you see two main evo-
genic sea vessels and cryo- power, hydro power or even 3. Environmentally friendly: lutions: on the one hand, indi-
genic road tankers; and stor- geothermal units. Therefore, as the buoy is several kilo- genous production is rapidly
ed in specially designed it is often better to invest in metres away from the shore, decreasing (UK, Germany,
tanks. By this process; it these countries where the our system does not harm the etc.); on the other hand, the
becomes approximately 600 costs are lower rather than coastline in comparison with consumption of natural gas is
times smaller, and is easier merely adopting a national a traditional LNG terminal. rising due to all kinds of poli-
to transport over long dis- point of view. tical decisions (Kyoto,
tances where pipelines do Q: It I understand correct- nuclear phase-outs, etc.). This
not exist, are difficult to Q: How does natural gas l. when the ship arrives in leads to a rapidly expanding
build or just as an alternati- reach my home? harbour, you just discharge gap between supply and
ve. The major difficulty the gas directI. demand. The question now is:
with the use of gas is There are two means of who is going to fill this gap?
transportation, so therefore transportation for reaching a We do not even need a har-
LNG is very a good solu- country: via LNG (liquid) bour in order to download the Large investments are needed
tion. It can then be used for or via pipelines (gas). The cargo! The problem today is to bring gas from Russia or
heating, as raw material for choice of method depends that nobody wants a large ter- Qatar to Europe.
industry or to produce elec- on investment costs and minal on their coastlines. The 1. New pipelines are under
tricity. It goes without political choices. It is then coast is used for tourism and construction (like the Baltic
saying that this whole value transported across the coun- other activities, and a huge Sea Pipeline).
chain is very capital inten- try in high-pressure pipe- production plant is not a pret- 2. LNG offers a global advan-
sive. lines and distributed into ty sight. Therefore, our sys- tage and flexibility in the mar-
your home through low- tem allows us to unload our ket place, therefore there are
Q: Is natural gas good or pressure pipelines. cargo far away from the investments in liquefaction
had for climate change? coastline. What happens, in terminals, cryogenic ships
The main difference be- fact, is the following: the ship and re-gasification plants.
Natural gas is the cleanest tween our company, Exmar, is docked to the buoy (which A lot of new terminals are
fossil energy available. In and other shipping compa- might be far from the shore), being created. Some people
order to comply with the nies is that we have develo- the liquid gas is re-gasified, argue that these terminals will
Kyoto Protocol, many ped, together with our part- injected into the offshore not be used as there is not
governments are promoting ner Excelerate, a techno- pipeline and sent to the shore. enough gas to fill them. Our
natural gas because it lowers logy where we carry out the system costs only one-seventh
the emissions of the country re-gasification on board the Beside the ecological of the total cost of a terminal,
compared to other fossil ships. Normally, you have concerns mentioned above, and you have more flexibility.
energies. liquefaction plants, ships re-gas terminals require huge To give you an example: in
and then the re-gas facility capital investments. With the the Netherlands there are
It is true that there are rene- on shore. We skip the last Exmar system, developed three competing projects. It
wable energies that produce step. The ship is moored at a with its partner Excelerate, can be questioned whether a
no emissions, such as wind specially designed off- it's much cheaper -- you only relatively small country like
power. But these technolo- loading buoy. The LNG is need one vessel to serve dif- the Netherlands needs three
gies have some disadvan- re-gasified on the vessel and ferent markets. One day the LNG projects! We will see in
tages. For instance, you injected into the national vessel is active in the United a couple of years what hap-
need back-up energy for grids by means of a sub-sea States, some days later it can pens.
wind turbines in case there pipeline. be serving the United
is no wind. Due to its flexi- Kingdom. In order for a gas Q: What plans are there for
bility, the back-up energy By building the re-gasifica- producer to be active in two developing the pipeline net-
often used for wind turbines tion plant on board our markets, he needs to build work?
is a gas-fired unit. ships, we have the following two terminals, but by using
advantages: our product he will be able to I believe there are two main
I do not believe that most 1. Flexibility: we can off- serve two markets. It introdu- projects.
renewable energies -- such load the vessels directly into ces a great deal of flexibility 1. Construction of new pipeli-
as wind energy -- would be the national grids without into the market. nes
economically viable without using a costly re-gasifica- I think the biggest one is the
the large subsidies paid by tion plant. For the price of Q: What are the constraints one under the Baltic Sea
countries. I also believe that building one traditional on natural gas in Europe? which will link Russia imme-
energy investment decisions LNG terminal, Exmar can Is it the supply of gas or is it diately with Europe, because
should be made from a build up to seven re-gas the pipeline network?
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