The possible energy future of New England and the nation steamed into the Gulf of Mexico last week and moored 116 miles off New Orleans.
Called Excelsior, the massive red-hulled ship — almost two football fields in length and 15 stories high — is a signature piece in the world’s first offshore liquefied natural gas port, which began operating here last year.
The ship holds enough super-cooled gas in its tanks and labyrinth of gray pipes to heat about 30,000 homes for a year. But the ship’s critical attribute is the ability to turn that liquid back into a vapor at sea and pump it into an underwater pipe that carries the gas to shore.