Even the gloomy Mr Greenspan calls LNG a "safety valve" for the American economy.
Cryostar, a French company, makes small-scale liquefaction plants to turn biogas into LNG.
Qatar's record at the security council stems partly from the character of its ruler, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, and partly from the fact that both America and Britain will start importing liquefied natural gas (LNG) by tankers from Qatar in 2008.
The takeover of BG can be seen as an opportunity for Shell to bulk up in Brazil; or as a chance to leap to the top of the liquefied natural gas (LNG) market, where BG is predominant; or as a cost-cutting exercise.
That could leave the US free to become a net exporter, to the tune of 4.7m bpd of oil and LNG.
Shell has a major commitment to the country, not least through its liquefied natural gas (LNG) scheme at Sakhalin in eastern Russia but other companies have recently signed deals to explore for shale in Siberia and search for hydrocarbons in the Arctic.
Decisions granted immunity include controversial approvals in Queensland of dredging at Abbot Point, an LNG export facility at Curtis Island and a coalmine in the Galilee Basin.
From 2014, huge ships are due to load liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Curtis Island for export, mainly to Asia.
And a significant part of that gas would be headed to high-price Asia, not just from plants on America's Pacific coast but also from the Gulf, since from 2015 the new locks on the Panama Canal will enable it to take large LNG carriers.All this depends on investors coming up with the money.
Yet the Gorgon consortium has scored green points with its plan to rebury the carbon dioxide it pumps up along with the field's gas.So far, Australia's LNG industry seems to have sidestepped the biggest potential problem altogether.
Even before the nuclear disaster, Japan was the world's biggest importer of liquefied natural gas (LNG), and now consumes nearly a third of global output.
