User talk:Rexene

As I read about the renewed interest in LNG, I am reminded of the disaster of the energy crisis of the late 1970's and early 1980's and the interest then in LNG.

Basically, the El Paso Products Corporation (with help of the members of the US government) decided to participate in construction (as consultant) of a plant in Algeria and actual construction of large ships in France to transport the LNG.

At the end of the day, by the time the plant was completed and the ships were finished, the price of gas had fallen to the point that the production and transportation of LNGs was no longer profitable.

Unfortunately, for a small company like El Paso, owning three unusable LNG transports was a financial disaster.

The stock price suffered, and the company was bought by Burlington Northern Railroad. Burlington kept all of the oil and gas assets, and spun off the chemicals division.

The chemicals division ended up being sold to the chemicals/plastics management in an LBO in 1983, with the help of the founder. Some 5 years later, it was resold to an external investment group, including Drexel Burnam Lambert partners. Finally, it was sold one more time in 1997 to Huntsman and reduced from an independent company to the status of couple of plants in the Huntsman organization.