Kirkland says U.S. window for LNG is in next decade before Alaska gas pipeline starts up

In a Nov. 22 Dow Jones report, George Kirkland, president of ChervronTexaco Overseas Petroleum, was quoted as saying, “I think LNG still has a window to deliver gas before the Alaskan pipeline.”

The U.S. energy industry needs to produce more liquefied natural gas to meet rising demand, the executive told Dow Jones, even if a planned gas pipeline from Alaska’s North Slope gets the green light.

Unlike oil, natural gas can’t be transported via tanker unless first converted into LNG.

According to a recent study by the National Petroleum Council, Alaska gas could account for 6 percent of U.S. supply in 2013-14, when the North Slope pipeline is expected to come on-line.

The report said the United States also needs to build seven new LNG receiving terminals.

ChevronTexaco is one of the companies working on international projects that would import LNG to both the east and west coasts of the United States. Most of these projects are expected to come on-line in 2007-2009. ChevronTexaco said Nov. 17 that it has received federal approval to build an offshore LNG receiving terminal some 40 miles off the Louisiana coastline in the Gulf of Mexico. (See story in last week’s Petroleum News.) On Oct. 30, the company said it was applying for Mexico permits for an LNG receiving facility some eight miles off the coast of Baja California, Mexico.