Custom tugboats designed to tug LNG tankers are docked at the Cheniere’s Sabine Pass LNG facility in Cameron, Louisiana. Somewhere in the Gulf of Mexico right now, the Energy Atlantic is headed for Louisiana to collect an historic cargo: the first exports from America’s shale gas revolution. Waiting to steer the giant tanker into Cheniere Energy Inc.’s $15 billion Sabine Pass terminal is a fleet of tugboats that’s spent the past seven years killing time — some days holding emergency exercises, some days racing each other. They were all set to escort shipments of natural-gas imports, but the ships never arrived: unexpectedly, the U.S. started producing enough gas of its own. “The boats are beautiful — you could eat off the floor in the engine room,” said Richard Ennis, head of natural resources at ING Capital. With the switch to exports, the tugs will at last have a job […]