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by powertower 3139 days ago
The last time this was suggested on the news (CNN, etc), I did some quick math.

To ship gas to Europe, the US will need to spend about 50B-100B+ (minimum) building LNG facilities on both port sides, and then build something like 10,000 LNG Carriers (oceanic ships) to meet demand. Which would cost another 100B+ (maybe even 1T).

After all the infrastructure is set up, the prices will be at least 2-3 what they pay now (as they have to do things to and with the LNG that Russia does not in the process of delivery).

Its not feasible, unless you want the US taxpayers to pick up the bill and then subsidize it.

These were back of the envelope calculations. It could be a factor of 10 off in either direction.
2 comments
philipkglass 3139 days ago
How were those numbers estimated? To go with adventured's proposal that Germany replace half of its coal power with LNG, Germany generated 284 TWh from coal in 2013. Producing 142 TWh from gas would require about 25 million tons per annum of gas (assuming 490 g CO2/kWh from gas generation in CCGT, per IPCC 2014, and working backward from CO2 to CH4 -- 178 kg of methane per MWh).

The US is already expected to add 66 MTPA of LNG export capacity by 2019:

http://analysis.petchem-update.com/supply-chain-logistics/us...

Were you perhaps estimating the numbers to replace all of Europe's thermal coal consumption?

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Tomte 3139 days ago
I thought so. A pipe sounds much cheaper than boats.

> Its not feasible, unless you want the US taxpayers to pick up the bill and then subsidize it.

Oh, if that's possible, sure, thank you very much! ;-)

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logfromblammo 3139 days ago
Why couldn't you build a submarine pipeline, instead of the ship terminals and ships?

Langeled (1166 km) and Nord Stream (1222 km) transport gas under the sea, and a US-to-Germany pipeline would only be about 5 times that distance. I estimate Boston-to-Hamburg could be done for $60 billion, and it could make stops in Newfoundland, Ireland, and Britain.

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gaius 3139 days ago
Oh, if that's possible, sure, thank you very much! ;-)

That worked for German defence policy, so there's precedent...

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