News reports from Algeria, supplemented by comments from that nation’s Washington, DC-based ambassador, cite the possibility that a liquefied natural gas (LNG) pipeline leak may have been the cause of the explosion and fire that killed 27 people Jan. 19 at the Skikda liquefaction plant that processes natural gas for oceanic transport as a liquid.

Despite a major business news report in Monday’s Los Angeles Times that quotes the Algerian ambassador, Mitsubishi Corp.’s executive in charge of plans for a LNG receiving terminal in Long Beach, CA, harbor said the industry and general public should await more definitive information. The Algerian state gas company is expected to report at the worldwide LNG conference in Qatar next month and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is investigating of the tragic incident. Industry sources in the U.S. had said earlier that the cause centered on a failed boiler in a part of the facility that is 100 meters from the liquefaction processing.

The LA Times‘ report Monday, however, quoted Idriss Jazairy, Algeria’s U. S. ambassador, as saying that it is now believed that the explosion started with a leak of LNG, and the news report noted that U.S. industry executives “reacted with consternation” to the ambassador’s comments, while wondering privately whether another liquid gas — such as more volatile propane or ethane — might actually be the culprit.

For now, “no one knows, so I am not going to speculate,” said Tom Giles, COO of Mitsubishi’s Sound Energy Solutions (SES), its Long Beach-based subsidiary with plans to build a $400 million receiving terminal on a part of a former U. S. Navy base in the port. “I think everyone is still waiting on the final report, and trying to see if there is any relevancy to our project. It was a terrible tragedy.”

Giles said there is a “fractionation unit near the boiler, which still blew up, but the issue is whether some sort of fumes got sucked into the boiler, and there were refrigerant and fractionation units nearby. The LNG is at the other end of the train. This latest report isn’t a final one.”

Except for the Times‘ report on the ambassador’s comments, all of the other reports talk about “gas liquids” as a possible cause, Giles said, noting this could include LPG or other liquids other than LNG. Nevertheless, he also said that “honestly, we don’t know. What we have heard is that it might be tied to a leak from the fractionation unit, but we don’t have any way to confirm that.”

A tie-in to LNG, itself, has been considered remote because the physical separation from the boiler and fractionation unit and the LNG-making facilities at the other end of the “train,” said Giles, reiterating that LNG receiving terminals will not have a boiler. “We don’t have compression or refrigeration either.”

Giles questioned exactly what the news reports coming out of Algeria may have said because the first ones were in French and later translated to English. “But I really, honestly can’t pin it down,” he said, noting that there should be updated information from the Algerians at the upcoming conference in Qatar. He also thinks it may never be known precisely what happened.

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