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[sarkasm] 28/12/2019 20:55

Stop the Spread of Liquefied Natural Gas — Before It’s Too Late

By
Olivia Alperstein,
OtherWords

Published
December 28, 2019



Liquefied natural gas (LNG) is a potential disaster in the making. That’s the conclusion of a new report by Physicians for Social Responsibility, which surveyed an abundance of research on LNG’s threats to public health.

LNG is natural gas that is filtered and supercooled to -260° F, turning it from gas to liquid. That makes it easier to transport in special cryogenic tankers when pipelines aren’t an option, such as for overseas shipping.

But while the fracking that extracts the gas, and the pipelines that often move it, have generated well-deserved controversy, the risks of LNG haven’t gotten as much attention. They deserve more.
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The new report finds significant risks from the extraction process (including gas leaks and air pollution), further pollution from the liquefaction process, and serious risks of fires and explosions.

And I mean serious. A full LNG tanker carries the energy equivalent of 55 atomic bombs. If one caught fire or exploded in a populated area, it could make an oil spill look like a picnic.

Even without exploding, the gas poses serious risks to our climate and health.

LNG is primarily composed of methane, a greenhouse gas that is 84–87 times more powerful than carbon dioxide over a 20-year period, which makes it a major contributor to climate change. And the fracking process, the report adds, injects a further “slurry of chemicals” into the surrounding environment. Many are known to contribute to strokes, cancer, and asthma.

LNG export facilities are often located in areas already plagued by dangerous levels of pollution from energy and industrial facilities — often areas with mostly African American, Native American, Hispanic, or low-income families. Facilities may also be sited close to schools and nursing homes.

“Such proximity, often reflecting these communities’ lack of political power, intensifies the impact on vulnerable populations and people with pre-existing health conditions,” the report notes. These communities are also more likely to lack the resources to address environmental health concerns.

Despite these dangers, there has been a boom in LNG production in the United States over the past 15 years. According to federal regulators, there are over 110 LNG facilities operating in the United States.

The United States is exporting record amounts of LNG to the global market right now, and there are plans to expand LNG facilities in many parts of the country. Meanwhile, the Trump administration is pushing an ill-advised proposal to transport LNG by rail.

Expanding these projects would increase pollution, put human health at risk, and increase the risk of catastrophic fires and explosions. It would also sink billions of dollars into infrastructure that would lock the United States into greenhouse emissions for decades to come.

Thanks to the Trump administration’;s systematic rollback of critical health and safety protections, we simply don’t have the safeguards to protect ourselves or our planet from fracking, pipelines, or LNG.

As PSR’s new report makes clear, LNG poses a grave risk to our planet, our health, and our future. Instead, we need to demand healthy solutions for our communities. Our health needs to come first — before fossil fuel corporations’ bottom line

Olivia Alperstein is the deputy director of communications and policy at Progressive Congress. Her prior experience includes work in development, legal organizations, political campaigns and not-for-profit advocacy.

[sarkasm] 28/12/2019 20:09

America’s Nord Stream 2 Dilemma Is Only Just Getting Started
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Nord Stream

The Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, construction of which is intended to transport 55 billion cubic metres of Russian gas to Germany per year under the Baltic Sea, is a ragbag of options and promises. The fruit of a deal between Berlin and Moscow, it has troubled those within Russia, Germany, Europe and the United States, though for different reasons.

On the subject of environment, the ledger of negatives against the project are weighty. Environmental organisations fear the ecological threat the pipeline poses to the Baltic Sea. The Russian office of Greenpeace has claimed that Nord Stream 2 AG, owned by Public Joint Stock Company Gazprom, is an ecological misfit. It threatens the Kurgalsky nature reserve even as it promises transplanting various unique plant species affected by the gas pipeline.

According to findings from the V. L. Komarov Botanical Institute, the picture is even uglier than a breach of promise: the plant varieties in question, listed in the Red Book of the Russian Federation and the Red Book of the Leningrad region, were actually destroyed.

Bird life has also been affected, with confirmation that white-tailed eagles, which are also Red-listed, have fled their nesting sites in the reserve. Nord Stream 2’s response has been one of comparing apples and bananas, an analytical approach doomed to inaccuracy.

“Eagles are known for their resilience. Documentary evidence from the first Nord Stream project shows us that construction activities did not affect eagles’ behavioural patterns in Germany.”

The United States is less concerned with matters green. Nord Stream 2 poses a security threat.

Trump’s former secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, saw it as “undermining Europe’s overall energy security and stability.”

US energy secretary Rick Perry argues that “Russian gas has strings attached.” The claim is that Germany will become too reliant and Ukraine further weakened. Ukraine had been the premier gatekeeper for Russian gas supply, with 40 percent of Europe’s total amount transiting through Ukrainian soil. A slump in gross domestic product occasioned by an end to transit fees is considered imminent.
Related: Russia’s Latest Energy Power Play

Other European states have been crankily concerned about the prospect of Gazprom’s deepening involvement in the continent’s energy market. Poland’s anti-monopoly body UOKiK showed a measure of that opposition by fining France’s Engie Energy (ENGIE.PA) 40 million euros in proceedings against Gazprom.

In February, EU ambassadors agreed that the project be subjected to greater scrutiny. A Franco-German compromise was struck: Nord Stream 2 would be placed “under European control”.

The Trump administration’;s actions against Gazprom and Russia’s energy influence, found in a provision of the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), can hardly be seen as noble endeavours.

The provision threatens sanctions and the freezing of assets against entities laying down the pipeline unless their activities cease “immediately”. The United States has its own energy interests in Europe, and wishes to frustrate the effort. Market share is at stake.

The suspension of laying activities on the part of Allseas, a Swiss company, suggests that Trump’s announcement is already biting..
Related: Has Tesla Finally Conquered China?

“In anticipation of the enactment of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA),” went a company statement, “Allseas has suspended its Nord Stream 2 pipelay activities.” The company would “proceed, consistent with the legislation’s wind down provision and expect guidance comprising the necessary regulatory, technical and environmental clarifications from the relevant US authority.”

The angle taken by the European Union, Germany and Russia can hardly surprise. Themes of energy security are reiterated. The Nord Stream 2 consortium makes the claim that, “Completing the project is essential for European supply security.” Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova spikily condemned the sanctions measure. “A state with a $22 trillion national debt prohibits creditworthy countries to develop the real sector of their economies!”

For a EU spokesman, this constituted “the imposition of sanctions against EU companies conducting legitimate business.” A German government spokesman suggested that such actions “affect German and other European businesses, and we see the move as meddling in our internal affairs.” Finance Minister Olaf Scholz has sees it as an infringement of sovereignty. “It is up to the companies involved in the construction of the pipeline to take the next decisions.”

Nothing is quite so simple. Gas pipeline politics has always been contentious. One state’s sovereign promise is another’s weakening. Concessions made to corporate monopolies are risky, capable of fostering insecurity as much as reassurance. Those who control the tap control a country’s future.

But the imposition of any sanctions regime signals another bout of economic violence. In the international market, where governments operate as ready gangsters for corporate interests, prompted by such motivations as seeking more natural resources, tools of state become handmaidens of economic self-interest. And in all this, the prospect of ecological devastation remains genuine but an aside to the jabbering disagreement of political interests.

By Zerohedge.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:

[maywillow] 28/12/2019 12:12

Washington's Unmasked Imperialism Towards Europe And Russia
Profile picture for user Tyler Durden
by Tyler Durden
Sat, 12/28/2019 - 07:00


Via The Strategic Culture Foundation,

Washington must think the rest of the world is as stupid as many of its own politicians are. Its passing into law – signed by President Trump this week – of sanctions to halt the Nord Stream-2 and Turk Stream gas supply projects is a naked imperialist move to bludgeon the European energy market for its own economic advantage.

US sanctions are planned to hit European companies involved with Russia’s Gazprom in the construction of the 1,225-kilometer pipeline under the Baltic Sea which will deliver natural gas from Russia to Germany and elsewhere across the European Union. The €9.5 billion ($11bn) project is 80 per cent complete and is due to be finished early next year.
Putin opens huge Russia-Crimea rail bridge hailed as longest in Europe

It is quite clear – because US politicians have openly acknowledged it – that Washington’s aim is to oust Russia as the main natural gas exporter to the giant EU market, and to replace with more expensive American-produced gas.

What’s hilarious is the way American politicians, diplomats and news media are portraying this US assault on market principles and the sovereignty of nations as an act of chivalry.

Washington claims that the sanctions are “pro-European” because they are “saving Europe from dependency on Russia for its energy”. The American hypocrisy crescendoes with the further claim that by stopping Russia earning lucrative export revenues, then Moscow will be constrained from “interfering” in European nations. As if Washington’s own actions are not interference on a massive scale.

European politicians and businesses are not buying this American claptrap. The vast overstepping by Washington into European affairs has prompted EU governments to question the nature of the trans-Atlantic relation. About time too. Thus, Washington’s hubris and bullying are undermining its objective of dominating Europe for its own selfish interests.

Russia, Germany and others have defiantly told Washington its weaponizing of economic sanctions will not halt the Nord Stream nor the Turk Stream projects.

As German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said earlier this month, “it is unacceptable” for the US to brazenly interfere in European and Russian energy trade. The American pretext of supposedly “protecting” the national security of its purported European allies is frankly laughable.

The American agenda is a blatantly imperialistic reordering of the energy market to benefit US economic interests. To pull off this audacious scam, Washington, by necessity, has to demonize and isolate Russia, while also trampling roughshod over its European allies. Europe has partly aided this American stitch-up of its own interests because it has foolishly indulged in the US antagonism towards Russia with sanctions due to the Ukraine conflict, Crimea and other anti-Russia smears.

The legislation being whistled through the American Congress by both Republicans and Democrats (collectively dubbed the War Party) is recklessly fueling tensions between the US and Russia. In trying to gain economic advantages over Europe’s energy, Washington is wantonly ramping up animus towards Moscow.

Apart from the sanctions against Russian and European companies partnering on Nord Stream, the US Congress passed separate legislation which seeks to boost American oil and gas production in the East Mediterranean.

A Radio Free Europe report this week was headlined: ‘Congress Passes More Legislation Aimed At Curbing Russia’s Energy Grip On Europe’.

The headline should more accurately have been worded: ‘Congress Passes More Legislation Aimed At Bolstering America’s Energy Grip On Europe’.

The RFE report states: “The bipartisan Eastern Mediterranean Security and Energy Partnership Act, which was approved on December 19, is the latest piece of US legislation passed this year that aims to diversify [sic] Europe’s energy sources away from Kremlin-controlled companies.”


Again, the American double-think is jaw-dropping. Such is the arrogance of a flailing, delusional empire when it can publicly justify with a straight face an energy-market-grab with a veneer of virtue.

US oil and gas giants are moving into the East Mediterranean. Exxon Mobil announced the discovery of a major natural gas field off Cyprus in February this year. American firms are also partnering with Israeli companies to begin gas production in the Leviathan Field located off the coast at Haifa.

There is no doubt that the US sanctions targeting Nord Stream and Turk Stream are part of a bigger concerted pincer movement by Washington to corner the EU energy market of 500 million consumers (more than double the US population).

Colin Cavell, a US professor of political science, commented to Strategic Culture Foundation: “What should be hammered down in this continuing debate over which country will be able to deliver oil and natural gas to Europe is the fact that neither the United States nor, and especially, the Republican Party, stand for so-called free trade.”

Free-trade capitalism is supposed to be an ideological pillar of the US. In this ideology, governments should not interfere with market supply and demand. But paradoxically as far as US-imposed sanctions on Russian-European energy companies are concerned the American Congress is “quintessentially anti-free market”, notes Cavell.

In its shameless profiteering, Washington is acting aggressively towards Russia and Europe while flouting its own supposed economic principles and relying on brute force to win its arguments. America’s imperialist agenda towards Europe and Russia is how world wars are instigated.

[misca2] 27/12/2019 13:33

Eni SpA (ENI.MI) said Friday that it has taken the final investment decision for the expansion of a liquefied natural gas plant in Nigeria, together with its partners for the project.

The plant is part of the Nigeria LNG joint venture the Italian company is sharing with the Nigerian government and Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDSB.LN) and Total SA (FP.FR), Eni said.

The development is expected to be finished in 2024 and will increase the annual production capacity of the joint venture to more than 30 million metric tons a year.



Write to Kim Richters at [e-mail]



(END) Dow Jones Newswires

December 27, 2019 07:16 ET (12:16 GMT)

[waldron] 26/12/2019 23:38

Why the Liquefied Natural Gas share price is charging higher today

James Mickleboro | December 27, 2019 10:06am | More on: LNG
Lng cargo ship

In morning trade the Liquefied Natural Gas Ltd (ASX: LNG) share price has charged higher following an update on its Vietnamese operations.

At the time of writing the LNG producer’s shares are up 5% to 20 cents.
What did Liquefied Natural Gas announce?

This morning Liquefied Natural Gas responded to a press release by Delta Offshore Energy which revealed that Vietnam’s prime minister has approved the inclusion of the Bac Lieu LNG-to-Power Project into the National Power Development Plan 7 (PDP7).

Liquefied Natural Gas advised that it was very pleased with the news and notes that this approval clears the way for Delta Offshore Energy to negotiate and finalise a 25-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with Electricity Vietnam to underpin its LNG-to-power project in Vietnam’s Bac Lieu Province.

It also means that Liquefied Natural Gas and Delta Offshore Energy can now finalise a binding sale and purchase agreement for delivery of 2 million tonnes per annum of U.S. LNG from its Magnolia LNG operation. This is pursuant to the two parties’ non-binding memorandum of understanding.

The company’s managing director and CEO, Greg Vesey, said: “As we have previously disclosed, the approval of the amendments to Vietnam’s Power Development Plan 7 was the prerequisite for execution of our binding sales and purchase agreement with our partners, Delta Offshore Energy, for 2 mtpa from Magnolia.”

“We thank Prime Minister Phúc and members of his Cabinet for their supportive efforts, and will immediately begin completing the terms of what will be the first long-term sale and purchase agreement for LNG to Vietnam,” he added.

Shareholders will no doubt be pleased with today’s gain as it has been a difficult 12 months for the LNG producer. Prior to today, its shares were down 63% since the start of the year. As a comparison, the S&P/ASX 200 Energy index is up a sizeable 23% over the same period.

[turvart] 26/12/2019 22:37

That's all you can do to be honest! we the MM's know who you are with names on the register and don't bother trading again with your anti-jewish bullying into RIO!

[adrian j boris] 26/12/2019 22:30

Turvart
26 Dec '19 - 22:29 - 603 of 603 (Filtered)


0 0 0

[turvart] 26/12/2019 22:29

You are a nasty little lot, and now we have caught you in the act of who you are and in the same concept of criminal Germany!

[adrian j boris] 26/12/2019 22:28

Turvart
26 Dec '19 - 22:23 - 601 of 601
0 0 0
The fact remains that you clan are anti-Jewish and the MM's are going to smash you into oblivion!


advfn have been warned of your constant repetitive false ranting


i for one will just filter your ranting

[turvart] 26/12/2019 22:23

The fact remains that you clan are anti-Jewish and the MM's are going to smash you into oblivion!

[turvart] 26/12/2019 21:50

Well this is in fact not my fault that the epic is wrong? I suppose that's my fault for being Jewish too?

The fact remains that you clan are anti-Jewish and the MM's are going to smash you into oblivion!

[adrian j boris] 26/12/2019 21:44

TURVART


This not a Leisure & Gaming (LNG) thread


it tends to be centred round liquide natural gas

[turvart] 26/12/2019 21:28

Why was NMC shorted so much?

Because people hate fraud, The fact the UAE hate JEWS!

[turvart] 26/12/2019 21:24

And these sort of people wonder why NMC gets shorted!

[turvart] 26/12/2019 21:17

Look at them look! these are the people that bullied me into the ground for just being born Jewish on the RIO thread! but they are trying to post long threads to bury my posts for being Jewish!