Position paper on the impact of including methane number in natural gas regulation

GIIGNL has developed a position paper to describe methane number and the possible impact on the LNG market of a future regulation/specification for this parameter which is linked to natural gas quality. Currently, there are several standards describing calculation methods of natural gas methane number, but there are doubts about their reliability and the results differ from each other. No official regulation which states a minimum value for methane number of natural gas has been identified. A methane number of 80, as recommended by some organisations in Europe, would endanger the LNG supply to the market, limiting acceptable LNG sources, or would require expensive gas treatment. In the long term, if there is a market for high methane number natural gas, this may be an opportunity for LNG terminals able to adjust or manage supplies to the desired methane number