Le gaz s' évapore durant ce stockage (de rare bateaux sont équipés pour reliquefier le Gaz récuperé, mais il faut de l' énergie pour ca), et de toute façon il y a trop peu de méthanier en service.
http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/Displa ... 017356.xmlOffshore LNG storage not feasible, says official
posted 7/1/2009 Source ::: Reuters
DOHA: It is too expensive and difficult to store liquefied natural gas at sea for long periods for the market to mimic offshore oil storage, a senior Qatari gas official said yesterday.
Discounts prevail for prompt oil and gas and, with a summer lull in demand, mean that gas suppliers could make more money holding onto their cargoes until later in the year when gas demand in Europe, in particular, will rebound.
There are dozens of oil tankers scattered around the globe waiting for fatter future profits than can be had in today’s oil crude market. But LNG storage offshore is much less attractive, the official from the world’s biggest LNG exporter said.
“There may be some marginal amount being stored on ships ... but there is no play in LNG storage like there is on oil. It is too expensive to store it on ships,” the source said . “Over time it evaporates so you lose gas. The ships are expensive to charter. There aren’t that many spare vessels on the market so there isn’t really the capacity like for oil.”
He said he was unaware of any LNG being stored on Qatari vessels, which are among the few tankers that are technically able to re-liquefy the gas that boils off onboard. The global economic downturn has slashed gas demand and prices, while new production facilities opening this year, particularly in Qatar, continue to increase supply to the market. On Monday, the International Energy Agency said global gas demand was likely to fall for the first time in half a century this year.
