LNG and Yemen: A combustible mix

By Larry Harmon The Boston Globe

YEMEN COULDN’T prevent Al Qaeda from building bases on its soil where terrorists plot to blow up planes in the US. Yet Bostonians are supposed to sit still while liquefied natural gas tankers are loaded in Yemen for transit through Boston Harbor.

GDF Suez Energy, the parent company of the Distrigas LNG facility in Everett, signed a profitable long term deal in 2005 to receive millions of tons of liquefied natural gas from Yemen at the tip of the Arabian Peninsula. Very good deal for the company. Not so good for residents of Boston, Chelsea, Everett, and other communities along the shipping route if there’s a major breach on a natural-gas tanker. Mixing a volatile fuel with a volatile country could be a recipe for disaster.

If anyone doubts that terrorists are drawn to LNG tankers, counterterrorism expert Richard Clarke, a native Bostonian, has asserted that Al Qaeda operatives slipped through Boston aboard such ships in the 1990s.

Meeting and situation rooms in Boston were abuzz last week with Coast Guard strategists, public safety officials, industry representatives, and politicians weighing the wisdom of allowing the first shipment from Yemen scheduled for the end of February. It would be better for everyone to shiver through the rest of the winter than to make a rushed or wrong-headed decision.

The Yemen connection is deeply worrisome, and the political climate there is intrinsically threatening. It was the site of the 2000 terrorist bombing of the US Navy destroyer Cole, killing 17 US sailors. Pirates ply the waters of the Gulf of Aden between Somalia and Yemen. And a group linked to Al Qaeda in Yemen took responsibility for last month’s attempt by a Nigerian terror suspect to blow up a flight from Amsterdam to Detroit. Despite recent efforts to root out terrorists, questions remain about the Yemeni government’s ability to secure its ports.

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