LNG infrastructure is expanding rapidly. The IEA reports that around 300 billion cubic metres per year of new LNG export capacity is expected to be added globally by 2030, primarily driven by expansion in the United States and Qatar. This investment reflects the continuing importance of LNG to global gas markets and energy security.
Alongside this is a less visible but increasingly important investment story: the critical engineering technologies that enable energy infrastructure to operate safely, efficiently and reliably.
A growing need for reliable energy infrastructure
LNG plays an important role in connecting global sources of natural gas with markets around the world. As liquefaction capacity increases, operators are under pressure to maximise the availability and efficiency of their facilities while managing increasingly demanding operating conditions.
This creates opportunities well beyond the construction of new LNG plants.
Every facility depends on a network of critical systems and components that must perform reliably over long operating lives. Flow-control equipment is one example. Valves may be relatively small components within a large processing facility, but their performance can directly influence plant availability, maintenance requirements and operating costs.
The challenge becomes particularly acute in processes such as feed gas dehydration, where equipment can be exposed to frequent cycling, high temperatures and abrasive materials.
For operators, selecting the right technology is therefore not simply a question of initial equipment cost. Reliability, maintenance requirements, operating efficiency and total cost of ownership are crucial factors to the long-term economics of an asset.
Solutions for demanding applications
These changing requirements are creating demand for new approaches to critical flow control.
Our Process Automation solutions overcome the challenges of conventional solutions, reducing contamination and over-pressurisation while simplifying maintenance and delivering reliable shut-off in compact, lightweight designs.
For operators, these characteristics can translate into more than improved valve performance. Reducing wear and maintenance requirements can help minimise disruption, improve plant availability and lower the total cost of ownership of critical equipment. In a capital-intensive industry such as LNG, where the cost of downtime can be significant, the performance of individual components can have a huge impact.
This is where having a deep understanding of customer and industry challenges truly adds value in the energy industry and beyond: solving highly specific operating challenges in ways that can improve reliability, efficiency, and lifecycle performance.
Turning complex challenges into growth
The expansion of LNG infrastructure is part of a wider shift across the energy industry.
As energy systems grow, diversify, and become more interconnected, customers are facing increasingly complex engineering challenges, creating demand for technologies that can deliver reliable performance in demanding applications.
For IMI, the opportunity extends beyond supplying components. It’s about helping customers solve the engineering challenges that come with more complex, higher-performing assets, combining specialist expertise with specialist solutions.
