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43 Infrastructure 1 (2003-2004)

handle is hein.journals/infrastr43 and id is 1 raw text is: B, ABA ifa tu t r KF Vol. 43, No. 1, Fall 2003 325 The return of liquefied natural By Michael R. Waler n the 1970s, when there were fears that the United States would run out of natural gas, several major pipeline Jcompanies looked to lique- fied natural gas (LNG) as a major supplement to domestic gas supplies. However, by the mid- 1980s, because of changes in federal law regulating the price of natural gas, domestic production of natural gas rose significantly and prices fell, causing liquefied natural gas to be priced out of most U.S. energy markets. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's restructuring of the natural gas industry, effectively eliminating the interstate pipelines from the gas supply segment and limiting their operations to trans- portation, caused various interstate pipelines to abandon LNG projects then on the drawing boards. Today, the balance between U.S. gas supplies and demand for gas has tightened and there is a real need for supplemen- tal gas supplies from sources outside the North American continent and its continental shelf. In order for gas produced on other continents and in far-flung parts of the globe beyond the reach of pipelines to be Michael Waler continued on page 5 Waller is with LeBoeuf, Lamb, Greene & MacRae, L.L.P, in Houston. His e-mail is michael. waller@LLGM.com. INSIDE