Maine should embrace LNG, shipping chief says at MMA

CASTINE – Maine’s role in the international marketplace should include liquefied natural gas terminals, according to the chairman of the American Bureau of Shipping, which develops and verifies standards for vessels of all types, including LNG tankers.

Maine lost a real opportunity when the proposed LNG terminal at Harpswell was rejected, chairman Bob Somerville said Friday, but two proposed terminals in Down East Maine could make the state the No. 1 energy hub in New England.

Somerville spoke at a conference sponsored by the Loeb-Sullivan School of International Business and Logistics at Maine Maritime Academy. The conference was organized to discuss so-called second-tier emerging economies, such as Brazil and Czechoslovakia.

“The fuel of the future is liquid gas,” Somerville said. “It is plentiful, clean and environmentally acceptable. The U.S. supply has long since peaked and is in decline.”

The sources for LNG will be countries such as Nigeria, Qatar, Russia and Australia, he said, and the fuel will have to be transported to the U.S. in LNG ships. More than 100 new ships are already on order around the world, and they will need a place to bring that product into the U.S.

“That gas and those ships can be a part of Maine’s future,” he said.

The Harpswell decision was based on fear, he said: fear of the product, the method of transporting it, fear that it might attract a terrorist attack and fear of its impact on traditional ways.

“There is nothing to fear about the carriage of LNG,” he said. “It has been moved by ship for almost 50 years. There have been about 33,000 voyages to terminals in Boston, Maryland, Louisiana, and there have been no major casualties and not a single cargo lost.”

Creation of an LNG terminal in Maine would give the state a higher profile in the international marketplace where the state already has a presence.

In 2005, businesses in the state exported $2.31 billion in merchandise worldwide, according to statistics from the Maine International Trade Center. Exports account for 5 percent of Maine’s gross state product and provide income for 1,668 Maine companies.

Speakers at Friday’s conference discussed the potential and risks of doing business in the emerging countries and regions that were the focus of the forum, including Brazil, South Africa, Central and Eastern Europe, Indonesia and Turkey.

“They are all fast-growing economies – though not as fast as China or India,” said Shashi Kumar, dean of the Loeb-Sullivan School. “And they are all agreeable to trading with the U.S.”

There is room for U.S. companies to survive and grow in a global economy, according to former Ambassador to Belize George Bruno, who was the keynote speaker for the conference. He congratulated those participants who were involved in international commerce.

“Not enough U.S companies do it; not enough understand it,” he said. “And when Americans do it, we’re good at it. That’s more so in Maine because of your legendary work ethic.”

Bruno discussed a number of risks that businesses face in dealing on the international market, including current U.S. foreign policy, which, he said, has damaged America’s image in the world.

“It has done so much damage,” he said. “It will take years and years to recover the ground we’ve lost. The things we have stood for for years – hope, opportunity, democracy, freedom – have all been called in to question because of our unilateral and hostile policies overseas.”

The nation’s emphasis on security, Bruno said, has made the U.S. less open, which will not be good for business.

He noted that the process to obtain a U.S. visa once took just a few days. Now, it takes as much as five months or more, he said. That could have long-term effects on students and on business as other nations retaliate with similar roadblocks to entering the country.

“We need to strike a balance between security and our long-term business interests around the world,” he said.