unpacking the shale gas lng export boom

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http://www.nationofchange.org/unpacking-shale-gas-lng-export-boom-1333374157



While the North American shale gas boom continues full-steam ahead, so too does another boom receiving less of the spotlight: the LNG export boom.

LNG, shorthand for liquefied natural gas, is gas that's been condensed into a liquid form by chilling it to approximately ?162 °C (?260 °F). That gas is placed in LNG tankers, also known as "trains," then shipped off to lucrative global markets.

One LNG export terminal — Cheniere's Sabine Pass LNG export terminal, located in Sabine Pass, Louisiana — has already received a federal permit from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). It is awaiting an obligatory rubber stamp from the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).

Many other LNG export terminals are also in the works, with many new key pieces of the puzzle unfolding in the past week. Thus, a lengthy primer, starting in northwest North America and eventually, meandering southward toward Texas, Louisiana and Georgia, and then eventually heading northeast, is necessary to put the LNG export boom into a proper context.