News - Will the new LNG port at Milford Haven mean cheaper gas for us..?

jd87

From BBC News:

"The first giant tanker carrying super- cooled gas from the Middle East to one of two new terminals in Pembrokeshire is expected to dock later.
Once fully operational, the liquefied natural gas plants at Milford Haven will be capable of meeting up to 25% of the UK's current gas requirements."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/south_west/7952415.stm

What chance of this meaning cheaper gas prices for us? A new (and presumably more cost effective) way of getting 25% of our gas needs into the country should surely lead to lower prices. I can't see it personally...

spiro

What it will mean is we will be less reliant on gas coming through the pipelines from europe and any disruption like happened recently with Russian gas flowing through the Ukraine. This may not result in lower prices but hopefully less volatile prices.

1carminestocky

jd87 wrote: »

From BBC News:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/south_west/7952415.stm

What chance of this meaning cheaper gas prices for us? A new (and presumably more cost effective) way of getting 25% of our gas needs into the country should surely lead to lower prices. I can't see it personally...

Well, domestic gas prices are largely at the same price as when crude oil was $147 dollars per barrel, i.e. approx $100 ago! And we were told that the big increases in gas were due to the big increases in crude oil, weren't we?

To summarise, my answer to your question is probably not. :rolleyes:

teddyco

It is my hope that the Qatar deal will bring down prices, but I am not holding my breath.
From what I understand, the UK has been self-sufficient in natural gas, but those supplies
are slowly running out in the North Sea, and the Milford Haven site is an attempt to keep the supply from
collapsing.

The problem is that Asia is willing to pay more for the LNG, and having the Milford site is no guarantee
that we will get all the supply that is produced when other countries compete for the stuff. It's basically a situation of who is willing to pay the most
for the LNG in the global market that dictates whether we get some of it.

Benergy

In the wake of the Fukushima NUclear disaster, Asia is paying over $7 mmbtu more for LNG than the UK. This should mean that all supply goes to Asia, but the UK's QatarGas contract (both the contract with Centrica and the contract with Exxon Mobil) mean that a certain minimum level of LNG has to be UK bound despite higher prices elsewhere. if these contracted cargoes were to be diverted away from the UK then UK gas prices would have to increase in order to attract those cargoes back from the UK. So thanks to Qatar, we have much cheaper gas than pretty much any Asian LNG importing country.

What is LNG?

chris1973

From what I understand, the UK has been self-sufficient in natural gas, but those supplies
are slowly running out in the North Sea

Really?, this article cites the reason for the 25% decline in 2011 as being down to a decline in projects and existing resource development due to G'ment Taxes

But the largest fall was in the amount of gas produced from the southern North Sea, where operators have been arguing that projects may have to be shut down because of a rise in government taxes in the last budget.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/sep/29/north-sea-gas-production-falls-by-a-quarter

Not a resources shortage
Not Aliens
Not dwindling supplies

TAXES

In fact the report also suggests further fields recently being found near to Blackpool and Somerset, thus securing more future production.

A further report:- http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/energy/oilandgas/8408306/North-Sea-gas-companies-could-get-millions-of-pounds-of-tax-breaks.html

Seems to Confirm that reduction in investment in existing 'profitable' fields, leaves us more reliant on imports, hence upping the price. There is nothing to suggest that there is any shortage of resources, in fact if they were extended and the G'ment weren't keen on taxing everything out of existance and indeed offered these 'Field allowances' as well as encouraging development of new sites, we may, as a country become self sufficient in Gas, becoming less reliant on expensive imports and transportation and keeping prices low.

Given that we have the most North Sea gas fields in Europe, should go a long way to stablising prices 'locally' and effectively we should be the country seeing the lowest rises. In much the same way as America's own rich seam of oil supply stablises their petrol and diesel prices, maybe we should start asking questions as to why this isn't the case?

C_Mababejive

The real answer to our energy problems is to consume less and increase efficiency of utilization.

Pincher

Hear, hear build bio-domes and underground dwellings that don't need much heating. I want to have house number 6 in Hobbiton.

It's a bit hard to get planning permission for gas storage; remember the Bunsfield Oil Depot fire near Hemel Hempstead?
During operation Dessert Storm (Kuwait, Iraq, George Clooney), Taiwan (an island) had gas tanker ships moored off shore, just in case they run out. Assuming there are enough ships to go round, it's a quickie solution to rent a few tankers to hang around during winter, just in case it gets extra cold. It's like me having two Calorgas bottles.

Yes, I know, if the Germans want to invade again, one torpedo each and we will all be freezing.

C_Mababejive

Indeed..there was quite a long battle to establish the Milford Haven terminal and its subsequent pipeline link into the gas transmission system.

I wonder how these protestors would feel if their gas suddenly went off and they had no cooking and had to sit and freeze?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBvjRdMqDqc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TpJXn0xy1pw

No doubt many of these were the same middle class rentamob who were also at Dale Farm..

grahamc2003

C_Mababejive wrote: »

The real answer to our energy problems is to consume less and increase efficiency of utilization.

Of course, any resource should be used efficiently.

Only 'greens', probably unintentionally in most cases, ensure the exact opposite.

In any case, even if we cut our consumption by 10%, it would be a mere amoebic amount compared to the rate of increase of energy use in the developing countries, where, iirc, the increase each year dwarf the total uk total energy consumption.

And we can hardly ask India and China to stop their increasing energy use - much of their population live in abject poverty and poor conditions which increasing energy use will help enormously.

C_Mababejive

grahamc2003 wrote: »

Of course, any resource should be used efficiently.

Only 'greens', probably unintentionally in most cases, ensure the exact opposite.

In any case, even if we cut our consumption by 10%, it would be a mere amoebic amount compared to the rate of increase of energy use in the developing countries, where, iirc, the increase each year dwarf the total uk total energy consumption.

And we can hardly ask India and China to stop their increasing energy use - much of their population live in abject poverty and poor conditions which increasing energy use will help enormously.

True...The real problem is of course population growth and the fine balancing act between age groups.