CYPRUS WILL never receive Liquefied natural gas (LNG), one of America's leading energy analysts said yesterday, branding the idea to bring LNG to Cyprus as “totally ridiculous”.

“LNG for Cyprus makes no sense at all, just forget it, it is not going to happen,” Cypriot-born Dr. Michael J Economides of the University of Houston said yesterday.

Economides was joined by two other American scholars who were adamant that not only was it much more practical and logical for Cyprus to import Compressed natural gas (CNG), but much more economical.

According to the trio, the import of LNG would be expensive and complicated, capital and energy intensive and made very little sense for short-haul volume trade, while CNG was ideal for Cyprus due the island’s close proximity to the gas source and absence of pipeline connection as well as its limited demand compared to other countries.

The LNG vs CNG debate surfaced recently among deputies at the House, with unconfirmed reports suggesting that the Cabinet had decided on the import of LNG, but the government insisted that nothing had yet been finalised regarding the type of gas it would finally agree to bring and it was still “open to all possibilities”.

However, both Patrick Chaney, Manager for Gas Ships in the Ship Sector Development Group for the American Bureau of Shipping (ABS), as well as David Stenning, President and CEO of Sea NG Corporation, a world leader in marine compressed natural gas (CNG) transportation, agreed that in the case of Cyprus, CNG would be a more viable option.

Further challenges for Cyprus in the import of natural gas are the distance from gas distribution systems and absence of a connection to the continental grid, its limited space for infrastructure as well as the environmental imperative and possible eyesore of a natural gas power plant for tourists.

According to Stenning, the decision to import CNG as opposed to LNG could cater for all these problems.

“CNG carries fewer environmental risks, does not need expensive terminals, is not a technically complicated system, has flexibility in loading and unloading options – meaning that it could deliver gas to more than one power plant -, options that are not available to LNG. Also Cyprus is less than 400 km away from one of the biggest natural gas suppliers in the world, Egypt,” he said.

Stenning said that if the Cypriot government decided to go with CNG, his company could begin supplying the market with natural gas 30 months from signing the contract, with a full fleet of ships available within 36 months.

With the debate over liquefied and compressed natural gas regarded of great national importance in order to free Cyprus’ dependence on oil, Economides claimed he was shocked and surprised at some of the “supposed facts that were being thrown around by the media and politicians in Cyprus”.

The outspoken energy analyst, nicknamed as the ‘$100 barrel guy’ after predicting three years ago that the price of oil would exceed a hundred dollars per barrel and well known in the USA for his accurate predictions in the energy sector, highlighted the problem of a general lack of knowledge regarding the issue of natural gas, whether LNG or CNG, in Cyprus.

“For three years people here were debating the idea of having a floating LNG unit. This is the craziest idea I have ever heard in my life. It is so plain ridiculous that the person responsible for this idea has to have been set to get money from somewhere. It is as logical as bringing gas from another planet to Cyprus with a spaceship,” he said.

Solon Kassinis, Director of the Commerce Ministry’s Energy Service, said last month that the risks involved with CNG were much greater than those posed by LNG. In order to store a reasonable amount of fuel, natural gas has to be compressed to around 200 times atmospheric pressure to produce CNG, he said.

This suggestion was refuted by Stenning, who claimed that his company’s development of their proprietary Coselle technology was the answer.

High-strength pipe is coiled into a reel-like structure, called a carousel. This carousel provides support and protection for the transportation and stacking of Coselles. The name “Coselle” originates from a contraction of the words “coil” and “carousel” and is a unique industry term developed a decade ago.

The complete Coselle CNG delivery system consists of a ship combined with loading and offloading facilities. The gas is compressed at a loading terminal and loaded into a CNG ship. The ship then travels to the offloading terminal where the gas is decompressed and delivered to market.

“In the event of a rupture, the flow is naturally choked by the small tube diameter and even if several sections of pipe failed it will not form an explosive vapor cloud. There is a much lower consequence of failure and while there is a miniscule chance of sequential rupture, even if it did, it would not be a problem,” Stenning said.

By Nassos Stylianou, Cyprus Mail, 4 July, 2008