Comparative Analysis of Incumbent and Emerging Liquefied Natural Gas Regasification Technologies

Energy plays a fundamental role in both manufacturing and services, and natural gas is quickly becoming a key energy source worldwide. Facilitating this emergence is the expanding network of ocean-going vessels that enable the matching of natural gas supply and demand on a global scale by transporting it in the form of liquefied natural gas (LNG) for eventual regasification at its destination. Until very recently only one type of technology has been available for transporting and regasifying LNG: Conventional LNG vessels and land based LNG regasification. It is now possible to transport and regasify LNG onboard special LNG vessels. Companies such as Excelerate Energy and Höegh LNG are currently developing LNG supply chains based on this new technology. Motivated by this recent development we engaged executives at Excelerate Energy to develop and apply to data an integrated analytic framework to compare these incumbent and emerging technologies. Our analysis brings to light basic principles delineating when to deploy each technology and how to configure the emerging technology. Some of our findings challenge conventional wisdom on the role to be played by the emerging technology; others provide answers to open questions faced by companies currently engaged in the commercial deployment of this technology. In addition, our integrated analytic framework has potential relevance for the evaluation of new technologies beyond this specific application.