Shell Treads Carefully While Promoting LNG-Fueled Truck Fleets

For background, see also:

• natural gas corridors in the United States
• 2012 - 2013 proposed energy corridor for the United States
• little by little, we're getting there -- LNG corridors

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Shell is stepping back a bit from funding LNG corridors in Canada.

Shell is tapping the brakes on plans to push natural gas as a fuel for the trucking industry.

The company confirmed it will not build a previously announced plant 20 miles west of Calgary that would turn natural gas into liquid form, known as LNG, for use in heavy duty trucks.

Shell still plans to build out a network of LNG fueling stations along a 900-mile stretch between Alberta and Canada’s Pacific Coast. But those LNG service stations, which will be operated by Pilot Flying J, will sell natural gas fuel created by a company other than Shell.

“We are definitely still interested, but it’s an emerging market so Shell has to take a balanced approach to these developments,” Shell spokeswoman Destin Singleton said.

So far Shell has not changed plans for two other LNG fuel plants – one in Geismar, LA, and one in Sarnia, Ontario, Ms. Singleton said. Once constructed, they could produce up to 250,000 tons per year of natural gas fuel for use in trucks and even ships as some tanker and ferry owners install the equipment needed to burn LNG instead of oil-based fuel.

The company has been pulling back from some North American investments as it tries to fund costly oil and gas projects around the globe, including selling off shale fields in the U.S. In December the company abandoned plans to build a multibillion-dollar plant in Louisiana that would have converted natural gas into diesel, citing skyrocketing costs.