How safe is liquefied natural gas?
The safety speaks for itself: For more than 40 years, natural gas has been safely delivered around the world in liquid form. That's over 40,000 ocean voyages covering more than 60 million miles around the globe – to places like Boston, Belgium and Tokyo - without a single maritime incident resulting in a major release or injury.

[ See: Dept. of Energy ]

Where is liquefied natural gas used in the U.S. and around the world?
Today there are 38 liquefaction plants and 47 receiving terminals in operation worldwide, including five facilities in the United States.

Around the world, natural gas receiving terminals have been in operation for more than thirty years. In fact, Japan, Korea and Taiwan depend almost entirely on liquefied natural gas for their natural gas needs. Europe, which is connected by pipelines to Siberia's vast natural gas reserves, nevertheless has 11 operating liquefied natural gas terminals, with another 13 planned or under construction.

Currently, there are five operating natural gas receiving terminals in the U.S. (Boston Harbor; Cove Point, Md.; Elba Island, Ga.; Lake Charles, La.; and Excelerate Energy's Gulf Gateway Terminal in the Gulf of Mexico). In addition, there is one export terminal associated with a liquefaction plant (Kenai, Alaska) and there are 57 land-based storage terminals with liquefaction capacity primarily used for peak shaving and load management.

What if there is a spill?
A spill or leak would cause minimal land or water damage. It is nontoxic, and as it evaporates (i.e., warmed up into its gaseous state, like water becoming water vapor), the resulting vapor would become lighter than air and disperse into the atmosphere. Although it is colorless, should it be released into the air, the cold vapor would appear as a white cloud of water vapor. The lighter-than-air property actually makes it less hazardous than some other fuels, such as propane, butane or gasoline, whose vapors are heavier than air and can travel considerable distances close to the ground. In its gaseous form, natural gas can burn only if it is released into the air, mixed with the correct proportion of air (5 to 15 percent of natural gas) and then finds a source of ignition. Too little air, and there is not enough oxygen to sustain a flame. Too much air, and the natural gas is diluted too much to ignite. (In its liquid state, it is non-flammable.)

[ See: Dept. of Energy ]

[ See: NaturalGas.org ]

Nevertheless, Clearwater Port will have a comprehensive safety system.

Did any accidents happen in the past, and are they applicable to modern liquefied natural gas receiving terminals?
The safety record for liquefied natural gas is clear and well documented: And for more than 40 years, natural gas has been safely delivered around the world in liquid form without any maritime incidents resulting in a major release or injury Indeed, the accidents that have occurred at U.S. facilities have been attributed either to inadequately designed materials, or to circumstances that did not involve liquefied natural gas. (In many cases, they occurred so long ago that they cannot be compared to today's modern natural gas receiving terminals. It would be like someone pointing to a 1944 car accident to claim that your new car is unsafe – ignoring the past 60 years of dramatic improvements in safety design and equipment, from seat belts to anti-lock steering to anti-rollover technology.)

Nonetheless, the lessons learned from each accident resulted in additional safety measures that are applied across the industry to ensure that similar accidents are not repeated. Here is a look at some of the accidents, their causes, and the safety improvements that resulted from them.

• 1944 – Cleveland, Ohio: Resulted in Safety Regulations that Have Prevented Similar Incidents for Over 60 years. At the Cleveland peak-shaving plant, an improperly designed tank cracked and spilled its contents into the street and sewer system. The tank was built with a steel alloy that had a low-nickel content, which made the alloy brittle when exposed to the extreme cold of liquefied natural gas. Safety regulations imposed after the 1944 accident ensure that metallurgy and designs meet safety standards that would prevent such a tank failure. There have been no similar tank failures in the past 60 years.
• 1973 – Staten Island, New York: A Construction Accident – Caused by Materials that are Prohibited Today. The Mylar lining of an empty liquefied natural gas storage tank ignited while being repaired. The fire and increase in pressure inside the tank caused its concrete dome to lift, dislodge and collapse, killing 37 construction workers inside. After a full investigation, the New York City Fire Department concluded it was a construction accident, not a liquefied natural gas incident. While re-evaluating this incident in 1998, the New York State Planning Board concluded that current government regulations and industry operating practices would prevent this type of accident from happening again because the combustible construction materials are now prohibited.
• 1979 – Cove Point, Maryland: Resulted in Code Changes that are In Use Today. Liquefied natural gas leaked through an inadequately tightened liquefied natural gas pump electrical penetration seal, vaporized, passed through 200 feet of underground electrical conduit and entered a substation. A circuit breaker in the substation ignited the mixture of gas and air, causing an explosion that killed one plant employee and seriously injured another. As a result of the incident, three code changes were made – all of which are applicable industry-wide today.
• 2004 Skikda, Algeria: A Fundamentally Different Facility. This accident occurred in Algeria at a liquefied natural gas liquefaction plant – where natural gas is chilled into liquid form so it can be exported – which is a fundamentally different facility from the receiving terminals proposed for bringing natural gas into the U.S. In fact, receiving terminals do not even require a steam boiler – which is what was found to have ignited the fire at the Algerian liquefaction plant. In Algeria, a gas leak occurred in a confined space and was ignited by a nearby boiler, causing an explosion and fire, which caused 27 deaths at the facility.