Re: No CNG for Punjab, federal capital in Nov, Dec, Jan: minister
Thanks for the article. It was nice read and informative. From the article you can see that imported LNG get converted to gas form at the port and fed into pipelines.
Most what I wrote earlier was from memory so mistake in thinking that ‘regasification’ is complete natural process, not procedural to be called ‘regasification’.
What I believed and I still think it is true, that, since LNG could not be fed into gas pipes because once LNG finds lower temperature it would expand, convert into gas form, and in process would burst the pipe … requirement would be to somehow trickle feed the pipe and make sure when liquid becomes gas due to low environmental temperate, there is enough space available for it to expand.
From the article, I realised that the process is called regasification, and that this process is done at sea-port, heating LNG or using sea-water in controlled environment, before feeding the gas to gas pipes.
So, process of converting LNG into Gas is called regasification, and you were right.
Anyhow, your referred article do prove the point that CNG stations and car running on CNG was good decision … because import of LNG instead of crude oil would still be cheaper per MBTU, and that means, in Pakistan, car should run on imported natural gas and not imported petrol, as that would save dollars in form of lower import bill, would save people money in theirs’ transport, and in addition, use of CNG instead of petrol would keep the environment cleaner.
Pakistan can get gas from Iran cheaply, but even if Pakistan imports LNG from UAE and give gas to CNG stations, still it would be cheaper than importing crude oil, refining crude oil into petrol, and then using that to run cars.
Cost given in your referred article:
• Liquefaction – $1.50 to $2.00 per mcf.
• Shipping – $0.30 to $0.90 per mcf.
• Regasification – $0.30 per mcf to the cost of LNG … shows that regasification cost is not much as it is mostly to do with controlled process of making LNG into Gas.
For instance … article is 20 month old (Feb 2012), and at that time, according to article, after all procedures (liquefaction, transport, and gasification) and cost of natural gas taken into account, LNG would cost $5 to $6 per MCF … and if we take $6 per MCF then also import of Natural gas would cost around $34 per barrel of crude oil import (remembering that present crude oil price is $102 per barrel) … hence saving ~$68 per barrel of crude oil import.
Pakistan imports ~70,000,000 barrel of crude oil per year … that is rising with time … replacing that with imported gas would save around 5 billion dollars in import bill … that saving would increase with any further increase in crude oil price … and would also increase further if Pakistan own fuel requirement would increase needing more imported fuel.
It means, converting private cars, rather every transport vehicles, using petrol to run on CNG was not only good idea but it was essential for country like Pakistan that has no oil or gas and have to import them for local need.