Pipelines to Remain Dominant ForceDespite Threat from LNG

Abstract

As worldwide demand for natural gas continues to grow at an increasing rate and certaincountries’ indigenous production is either in decline or simply unable to fill the shortfall, moreattention is being given to importing gas from the few remaining major exporters. The UK has recentlybecome a net importer of gas, and the US is expected to import as much as 5 trillion cubic feet of gasby 2020, the question that arises is what will be the primary method of delivery in the future? CanLNG alone fill any shortfalls and make interregional pipelines obsolete or will pipelines provideenough volume to stall LNG production? Although there has been a rush to build LNG facilitiesaround the world, so have there been a number of major pipelines planned, such as the line fromRussia across the Baltic Sea or the Middle East North Africa (MENA) pipeline from the Persian Gulfto Europe.

This paper looks at the threat to pipelines from LNG and other economic factors to ascertainwhether interregional pipelines are set to become obsolete as a method of transporting natural gas.