this issue with ethane stripping that has been bubbling along for some time now, I really do not understand. Certainly the original specs for the NWS LNG were based on calorific value and included ethane. I recall that when the prospect of flogging LNG from coal bed methane (no ethane) out of Gladstone there was a concern that buyers expectations of this calorific standard would actually require spiking with ethane, and that some heavy negotiation would be required to have a pure methane stream accepted. I presume this actually happened, since I have not heard of any ethane requirement from Gladstone. Good for Gladstone, but generally speaking a bit of ethane improves the heating value so why this continuing concern? I cannot imagine that the gas exported to Darwin for decades had any particular ethane stripping applied. In fact, records show that gas supplied from the Bass Strait to Melbourne back in 1996-97 was 91% methane, 5% ethane and 0.6% butane. Including 0.8% nitrogen and 2.2% carbon dioxide without any particular pipeline standard concerns.
Perhaps someone (psi ?) can shed some light on this??
CTP Price at posting:
20.0¢ Sentiment: Hold Disclosure: Held
