To bring a supply of liquefied natural gas closer to the customer, Shell is planning two liquefaction plants that will produce about one quarter of a million tons of LNG to road and marine users in the Gulf Coast and Great Lakes regions.

This decision follows an investment decision in 2011 on a similar corridor in Alberta, Canada. Shell is also working to use natural gas as a fuel in its own operations.

“Natural gas is an abundant and cleaner-burning energy source in North America, and Shell is leveraging its LNG expertise and integrated strength to make LNG a viable fuel option for the commercial market,” said Marvin Odum, President, Shell Oil Company. “We are investing now in the infrastructure that will allow us to bring this innovative and cost-competitive fuel to our customers.”

In the Gulf Coast Corridor, Shell plans to install a small-scale liquefaction unit (0.25 million tons per annum) at its Shell Geismar Chemicals facility in Geismar, LA. Once operational, this unit will supply LNG along the Mississippi River, the Intra-Coastal Waterway and to the offshore Gulf of Mexico and the onshore oil and gas exploration areas of Texas and Louisiana.

Shell plans to partner with Martin Energy Services to provide terminalling, storage, transportation and distribution of LNG.

Shell has a memorandum of understanding with Edison Chouest Offshore companies to supply LNG fuel to marine vessels operating in the Gulf of Mexico, and to provide what is anticipated to be the first LNG barging and bunkering operation in North America at Port Fourchon, LA. The LNG transport barges will move the fuel from the Geismar production site to Port Fourchon where it will be bunkered into customer vessels.

In the Great Lakes Corridor, Shell plans to install a 0.25 million tons liquefaction unit at its Shell Sarnia Manufacturing Centre in Sarnia, Ont. That project will supply LNG fuel to all five Great Lakes, their bordering U.S. states and Canadian provinces and the St. Lawrence Seaway.