Martin Hastings

Its looking increasingly like politics will decide who gets to build LNG regasification facilities for California – shame about the engineering issues, writes Martin Hastings.

The competition to build LNG terminals on (or off) the US west coast is hotting up, with corporate contenders having to deal with new geological and operating safety concerns, untested technology and planning framework changes, never mind the political arm wrestling. Martin Hastings updates us on who is still in the game.

Seats at the LNG supply table for California are dominated by the high rollers of the oil business and if you are not at the table then you are not in the game.

The Gorgon project involves far more than just the development of an isolated, deepwater, sour gas reservoir on an ‘A’ class nature reserve. There’s a secret agenda, says Martin Hastings, the subterranean storage/disposal of approximately 5 million tonnes a year of CO2 into an underground aquifer.

Many govenments around the world are pushing carbon sequestration as the panacea to global warming. Deeper analysis shows that economic realty will push most economies towards a nuclear solution – the only problem of which is – what to do with the waste.