[Denny]

LNG seems necessary in some ways now, but at the same time, its fraught with inefficiencies.

The cost of the tankers strong enough to contain the highly pressurized gas and the conversion costs at each end to compress to a liquid and then evaporate it back to gas seems like a big investment, and ongoing costs.

Would it not be more effective to relocate fertilizer and plastic feedstock processing operations to places like the middle east to produce it there and ship it over here by conventional ship? I am sure the shipping costs of these end products would be far less than moving LNG and likely safer too. Most people do not want to live anywhere near an LNG terminal. By freeing up the North American economy of the energy costs of fertilizer and petrochemical manufacture, it woudl free up gas for space heating.

I understand that there are still parts of the world where natural gas is just flared off. What a waste. It would seem so simple to locate some petrochemcial plants there to take advantage of the situation.

[Clouseau2]

I think it's already being done. I know Qatar is building the world's biggest fertilizer plant, and they are also building conversion plants to go from natural gas to diesel.

[BW3]

http://www.energypulse.net/centers/arti ... ?a_id=1087

[denverdave]

This would make sense. The scary thing about that not only our energy but also our food production would be in the hands of the middle east. It is much easier to deal with a fuel shortage than a food shortage. But if gas production drops off in north america we won't have much of a choice, and it is a more efficient use of scarce resources than burning it off.

[Denny]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('denverdave', 'T')his would make sense. The scary thing about that not only our energy but also our food production would be in the hands of the middle east.

[onequestionwonder]

Why would Russia and Iran (the 2 largest nat. gas reserve nations) sell natural gas to a competitor in industries they could have a natural advantage in?

If the product sells itself, if I were Vladimir Putin I'd just say no natural gas sales to you Turkey while we make fertilizer for the world market, and generate employment at home.

Natural gas is the cheapest feedstock for chemical and fertilizer industries, not the only one.

I wonder what the numbers look like for a nuclear powered fertilizer plant? Have electricity and all the heat you could ever want.