Finally! After a year and a half of delays, a date has been sketched in for the commissioning of South Hook LNG. Funnily enough, this date pretty much co-incides with the commissioning of a number of other LNG terminals, too. One of them is called Adriatic LNG, in the Mediterranean, and the other is Golden Pass LNG on the other side of the Atlantic in the US.
So do they have anything else in common?
Well, as it happens they do, and they go by the name of Exxonmobil and Qatargas. These two companies have majority interests in all three terminals. So here goes my theory...
Our brand spanking new supersized Q-Max tanker loads up in Qatar, and makes it's way up the Suez canal. Once in the Mediterrannean, it has a choice. It can either make it's way to the Adriatic Terminal, or head out the straits of Gibraltar towards either South Hook, or Golden Pass on the other side of the Atlantic. It all depends on where it can get the best return. If it can get a good price in the UK, it'll go to the UK. If the prospects are better in the US, it'll go there, and ignore the UK, until wholesale gas prices rise enough to justify bothering with us. In the industry, they call it "Arbitrage".
The date sketched in for South Hook is early 2009. Golden Pass is mid 2009. Then we're back into Winter 2009, when Gas prices tend to rise, and Exxon and pals can take their pick while we freeze...
Welcome to the brave new world of LNG!
