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But It's All Right Now (In Fact, It's a Gas)
In 1978, a liquefied natural gas (LNG) receiving terminal in Boston Harbor was unceremoniously shut down because of contract disputes with its Algerian suppliers. In 1987, the terminals owner, Cabot Corp., tapped Gordon Shearer (MBA 78), a determined geophysicist born and raised in Scotland, to somehow revive the dormant business, stated a front-page article in the Wall Street Journal (March 13, 2001).
Seeking a new source of supply, Shearer eventually settled on Trinidad and Tobago, better known as the calypso capital of the Caribbean, because of its large reserves and relative proximity to New England. Industry observers thought his proposal for an LNG plant there, small by industry standards, was totally harebrained, Shearer recalled, but Trinidadian officials liked it. Three years of contentious negotiations with energy industry giants, who were needed as investors and suppliers for the project, ensued. One participant reported that Shearer personally took them on and ran rings around them. The big oil companies are used to dealing with smaller players by keeping them in their place, Shearer declared. We had to be more proportionately noisy to make sure our interests werent swamped. In 1999, the plants first shipment of LNG left for Boston.
Cabot recently sold all its LNG-related business for a handsome sum. Shearer has moved on to new challenges at Poten & Partners, a New York ship-brokerage and consulting firm where, rumor has it, he keeps a copy of The Little Engine That Could on his office shelf.
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