Foreign sites sought for natural gas ports

PUERTO LIBERTAD, Mexico -- As U.S. natural gas reserves remain tight, some energy companies are looking to Mexico, Canada, even the Bahamas for sites such as Puerto Libertad, Mexico, where they can receive the mammoth boats carrying liquefied natural gas, or LNG.

As a port of call, Puerto Libertad doesn't offer much. There's no public dock, no cargo cranes — not much at all except sand and shrubs and the unbroken horizon of the Gulf of California.

But for the huge tankers that carry natural gas around the world, this Mexican village is perfect: close enough to the United States to pump their volatile cargo over the border but remote enough that a leak, explosion or terrorist attack wouldn't pose a threat to the USA.

The companies say that their decision to go over the border has nothing to do with safety and that they are mainly drawn by the ability to sell gas in two countries at once. But the foreign sites are also a way of bypassing opponents in American cities who are jittery about the prospect of gas tanker ships on their shores.

"Everyone is concerned that LNG is a combustible material, and they don't want it anywhere near them," said Alex Steis, managing editor of Natural Gas Intelligence, a trade publication.

"It's the same stigma, or nearly the same stigma, as a nuclear facility, whether that (fear) is founded or not."

Gas to fuel the Southwest

"It's going to be a very big deal," said Fernando Garcia de León, a representative for the project in Sonora state, as he looked out at the azure water lapping at the desert. "Both Mexico and the United States will benefit."

Gas terminals are increasingly important as companies struggle to meet the USA's energy demands. Much of the United States' remaining gas reserves are off-limits to drillers because they're in protected areas off the Florida coast, in Alaska or the Rocky Mountains.