liquid gas: the next terrorist target?

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.

Record high oil prices have encouraged many governments to look at other energy sources. LNG is an attractive option: it is environmentally friendly, costs are relatively stable compared to oil and a number of producers are eager to export their supplies.

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.

On 28 November 2001, attorney general John Ashcroft said that the Bush administration received information on a possible terror attack on the US natural gas sector, but did not say if the threat was made against a specific natural gas pipeline, storage site or LNG plant. LNG tankers bound for the Massachusetts port - which has specialised docking facilities costing more than US$1bn - now require the escort of USCG vessels within 200 miles of the coast.

While the USA currently has four LNG port facilities (Massachusetts, Louisiana, Georgia and Maryland), it is the Boston facility that has generated the greatest concern because the tankers transit through the centre of the city, passing within a few hundred yards of downtown Boston and Logan International Airport. Each tanker is now escorted with a helicopter, police divers, a marine patrol, environmental police, firefighting tugs, city police boats and USCG vessels.

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