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Foreign ports eyed for natural gas docks

EL PASO, Texas, Oct. 22 (UPI) -- As U.S. natural gas reserves fall, some energy companies are eyeing foreign ports of call to receive boats carrying liquefied natural gas.

Sites in Mexico, Canada and the Bahamas allow companies to sell LNG in the foreign country then pipe it across the border to the United States, bypassing opponents concerned about gas tanker ships docking in U.S. cities, the Arizona Republic reported Monday.

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

International gas terminals have become more important as companies scramble to meet U.S. energy demands. Because much of the country's gas reserves are off limits because they're in protected areas, U.S. imports of natural gas rose 42 percent from 1996 to 2006, to nearly 4.2 trillion cubic feet, the newspaper said.

Next year, for example, construction will begin on the Sonora Pacific LNG Term outside Puerto Libertad, Mexico. The $1 billion joint venture between El Paso Corp. and DKRW Energy LLC of Houston. About 60 percent of its gas will be piped over the border, the Republic reported.

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