The Oil Drum

92 comments on Empire On the Edge--Betting On LNG **

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jkissing on January 23, 2006 - 1:47pm

Unlike most bombs, an lng "exlosion" needs oxygen. So it first quickly burns oxygen in surronding air, causing a tower of hot air (actually, products of combustion) that rises, sucking in air at the base. Accordingly, at low levels it creates a partial vacuum and acts as an implosion, the opposite of a bomb.

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Halfin on January 23, 2006 - 2:12pm

I remember an influential article in the Los Angeles Times back probably in the 1970s when they were considering putting an LNG terminal in at Long Beach. The article vividly depicted the consequences of an explosion and fire at the transshipping facility. A wave of burning, evaporating methane gas would roll across the city, creating a fire miles on a side that would reach almost to city hall. The conflagration would be almost nuclear in its consequences. I don't know how accurate the story was (or my memory of it for that matter), it may be exaggerated, but it had an impact and that was the end of the idea back then.

Now they are trying again to put in an LNG terminal at Long Beach, and faced with opposition there they are looking at going about 70 miles up the coast to the Ventura/Oxnard area. The Ventura facility would be built offshore to avoid the fire risk, with an undersea pipeline bringing the gas inland (not sure if it would be liquified or vapor at that point). So far that plan is not exactly being welcomed either. It is a real NIMBY situation, nobody wants to get barbecued.

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Peaknik on January 23, 2006 - 2:34pm

I don't have any hard data to back up this, but a professor of Energy Resources in the University of Barcelona told me once that there was a study that simulated the effects of an explosion in the regasification terminal here in the port of Barcelona, the effects were pretty similar to those described below. In any case, it depends on what is in the surroundings of the exploding tanker. Here in the Barcelona harbour we have a lot of gas and oil depots...

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Gets IT on January 23, 2006 - 3:23pm

Cold boiling liquid escapes radially from a point source and flows along the ground or sea until it flashes into cool vapor. Until it has mixed with sufficient atmospheric oxygen, its is not an explosive mixture. If you light a match, the match is extinguished. As the cool vapor expands on heating from surface contact and atmospheric mixing, it continues moving outward from the source until it is eventually heated to ambient air temp. At that point it becomes lighter than air and starts rising. As the gas mixes with the oxygen in the air, it eventually reaches explosive limits and starts looking for an ignition source. <At this point it is very important to extinguish all smoking materials> If no ignition source is encountered, the gas rises into the air and <"harmlessly"> contributes to the greenhouse effect. If ignition occurs, rapid combustion follows and heated expanded vapors quickly cause an updraft usually sufficient to pull back any remaining gas mixture in the surroundings near the ground and all is sucked into the updraft and rising fireball. Consequently, surrounding gas now well mixed with atm O2 is rapidly displaced upward into contact with fireball causing even bigger and more spactular fireball that rises several hundred meters into the air, as radiated heat converts all nearby objects <if there are still any nearby> into melted crispy critters. Just digging into a large pipeline with a backhoe can cause fireballs and flames that can easily reach 200 meters high and melt the backhoe and unfortunate operator in a few ms. Happening on the scale of an LNG tanker would be a hell of a photo opportunity.