Demand For Natural Gas Expected To Grow (NAPSA)—The growing demandfor natural gas is fueling interest in the wayit’s processed and transported. Natural gas accounts for almost one-fourth of all energy consumed in the United States and is vital to the economy. Experts predict that the demand for natural gas will grow more than 38 percent by 2025. The good newsis that new facilities and technology for transporting this fuel to processing facilities are being developed. That’s important, because about 96 percent of the world’s proven natural gas reserves are outside of North America. At the same time, the U.S. is consuming about 25 percent of the world’s annual natural gas production. To make transport easier, nat- ural gas is often transported as a liquid. Liquefied natural gas (LNG)is natural gas that has been cooled to an extremely cold temperature so that it becomesliquid, which reduces its volumesignificantly. Experts say this makes it much morecost efficient to transport over long distances, particularly where pipelines do not exist. Specially designed ships and cryogenic road tankersare used to transport LNG to U.S. terminals. Ships unload LNG at specially designed terminals where the LNG is pumped from the ship to storage tanks. The liquefied natural gas is then converted back to a gas and then transported by pipeline to whereit is needed. To ensure maximum safety, the Coast Guard prevents other ships from getting near LNG tankers, mt pas “ES, The U.S. consumes about 25 percentof the world’s annual natural gas production. It accounts for almost one-fourth of all energy consumedin the United States. while in transit or dockedat a terminal. In addition, they have to be escorted by special ships, such as the Voith Water Tractor. Many believe the Voith Water Tractor is now setting the stan- dard for safety, reliability, speed and precision in ship handling and escort applications, and also in recovery, fire fighting, oil-spill control and offshore work. More than 830 Voith Water Tractors are in operation in over 120 ports throughout the world. Classification as Best Available Technology (BAT) by the Alaskan environmental authority confirms the success of this design. While Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean currently provide 66 percent of the U.S. LNG imports, new LNG terminals are being contemplated in the United States. Experts believe liquefied natural gas from overseas and Alaska will play an increasingly important role in the future energy needs of the U.S. This will require construction of new LNG import terminals. To learn more, visit the Web site at www.Voithturbo.com/ marine.
