Liquid gas: the next terrorist target?

[mom cat]

Liquid gas: the next terrorist target?

By Dr J. C. K. Daly

In the worldwide search for alternative fuels, liquefied natural gas (LNG) has become an increasingly popular choice for many nations, but it also offers a tempting new target to terrorists.

Growth in the worldwide demand for natural gas is outpacing the demand for any other hydrocarbon fuel. LNG is natural gas that has been refrigerated to -260ºF (-162ºC) to convert it to a more easily transportable liquid. There are over 40 existing and proposed natural gas liquefaction plants around the world, with many of them looking to help feed the USA's growing need for fuel. By 2010, LNG is projected to provide 10 per cent of US energy needs.

It is the security implications of handling LNG that concern US security officials. Specialists calculate that a terrorist attack on a LNG tanker would have the explosive force equivalent of a small nuclear explosion.

On 11 September 2001, hours after the attacks on the World Trade Centre, Richard Clarke, then the Bush administration's top counterterrorism official, tried to have the US Coast Guard (USCG) close Boston harbour, fearing a possible Al-Qaeda attack on an LNG tanker. In his book Against All Enemies, Clarke states that Al-Qaeda used LNG tankers to smuggle agents into Boston from Algeria, one of the USA's main providers of LNG. Clarke wrote: "Had one of the giant tankers blown up... it would have wiped out downtown Boston.

http://www.janes.com/security/international_security/news/jtsm/jtsm040706_1_n.shtml

[brainshrub]

1. Bean Burritos from Taco Bell are a WMD.

I've been saying that all along.

[mom cat]

3. Not THat Kind Of Gas!!!!!!!!! lolaf

:evilgrin:

[Somawas]

2. The terminals

make even more tempting targets. Giant shore based thromos bottles sitting on the ground adjacent to port cities. We need deep water gasification terminals as delivery points. And they are not that incredibly expensive to build. But doing something meaningful with LNG will require, among other things, a stable US friendly government in Venezuela and substantial investment in Trinidad and Tobago. That ridge between Lake Maracaibo and TT is the Saudi Arabia of natural gas.

Darn, this is one I could go on about for a long time. Know a bunch about LNG.

[mom cat]

4. Write a piece for the editorial page on this or

post some links if you have the time...Thanks:hi:

[CHIMO]

5. This Is

Probably more dangerous than the towers.
Just imagine a leak of this low temperature material that will collect in low lying areas and then be ignited.
Believe there was a book (fiction) written about this type of a catastrophe in the eighties.