The past decade has seen the beginnings of the creation of a global gas market with the emergence of liquefied natural gas as a fully flexible option of delivering gas supply. Strong demand for gas-fired power stations in industrial nations coupled with high energy prices have provided the economic conditions for investment in the expensive process of cooling gas to minus 160°C and shipping it anywhere in the world in large tankers.

The LNG transport system affords consuming countries an alternative to piped gas, which comes with geopolitical risks – as European markets discovered when Russia switched off its piped gas supply to Ukraine in 2005.