Liquefied natural gas (LNG) is natural gas that has been liquefied by reducing its temperature to -260 Fahrenheit or -161 degrees Celsius at atmospheric pressure. This liquefaction process reduces the volume of the gas by about 600 times from its original size, making it safe, easy, and efficient to transport, store, regasify and then supply to meet consumers growing need for low emission energy. The main feature of the LNG market in both USA and Europe is that it is still contract based so the actual details of pricing terms are hard to discover. Most contract prices are still oil linked but some of the spot deals are probably linked more to spot market prices. Shipping LNG from Qatar to ports in the US (a journey of about 43 days) costs $2.09 mmbtu, and the journey from Egypt to the US (30 days) costs $1.29 mmbtu. Qatar is the largest exporter of LNG after having completed its second gasification facility at an investment of $13.2 billion in 2009<br />