Site selection and planning issues for new LNG marine terminals

This paper considers the site selection and planning issues associated with the development of new LNG import and export marine terminals. It describes the current LNG fleet and recent developments in vessel sizes and the basic operational and design criteria required for LNG terminal development.The key objectives early in the planning and design stages are to define the environmental parameters and operational performance needs of the terminal. The integration of environmental conditions and operational criteria to optimise terminal development can then be undertaken by applying terminal operational simulation techniques. Some actual case studies are presented in the paper, which have used these techniques in the planning and development of new LNG Terminals.