Liquefied natural gas is natural gas that has been cooled down to liquid form for ease and safety of non-pressurized storage or transport. It takes up about 1/600th the volume of natural gas in the gaseous state. LNG is odorless, colorless, non-toxic and non-corrosive.

The gas produced from hydrocarbon deposits typically contains a wide range of hydrocarbon products, which usually includes methane (CH4), ethane (C2H6), propane (C3H8) and butane (C4H10). All these products have wide-ranging boiling points and also different heating values allowing different routes to commercialization and also different uses. The “acidic” elements such as hydrogen sulphide (H2S) and carbon dioxide (CO2), together with oil, mud, water, and mercury, are removed from the gas to deliver a clean sweetened stream of gas.

Natural gas was considered to be economically unimportant wherever gas-producing oil or gas fields were distant from gas pipelines or located in offshore locations where pipelines were not viable. In the past this usually meant that natural gas produced was typically flared, especially since unlike oil no viable method for natural gas storage or transport existed other than pipelines which required the immediate use by end users of the same gas. This meant that natural gas markets were historically entirely local and any production had to be consumed within the local network.