From time to time we sound the alarm that New England’s primary supply of natural gas, which comes via LNG tankers from Tinidad & Tobago, is in danger of drying up. New England continues to pay prices 3-4 times higher than the rest of the country for their natgas–due to lack of supply. That hasn’t (and won’t) change, until more supplies make it to New England, either by pipeline or ship. Opponents of new pipelines to New England have included LNG importers in the region. Specifically, GDF Suez imports Trinidad gas at the Everett, MA LNG import terminal, near Boston (see New England Importer Received 59% of All LNG Ship Imports 1H15). LNG imports are one of the primary sources of natgas for New England. Antis holler and scream, “Forget the pipelines. If you must use gas, use LNG. There’s more than enough LNG to supply New England.” In a macro sense that may be true, the world is awash in LNG. But arranging shipments and sources for it takes months, even years. And it costs more to get natural gas via LNG shipments than it does via pipelines. Right now most of the LNG GDF Suez imports come from Trinidad. As we pointed out in an article last year, Trinidad’s natural gas sources are drying up (see Is New England Heading for Huge NatGas Price Spike this Winter?). The country is exporting less and less. We have yet more evidence of that. Trinidad’s natural gas production decreased another 9% during the first half of this year. Again we sound the alarm! New England is heading for a natgas shortage…
