US President Donald Trump will tour the Cameron liquefied natural gas export plant on May 14 at Hackberry in Louisiana when he will praise the oil and gas industry for providing tens of thousands of jobs and helping to earn billions in export revenues to improve the wealth of the nation.
 |
“The President will discuss LNG facilities as they relate to domestic job creation and energy infrastructure,” said a White House statement.
“LNG export facilities like Cameron generate billions of dollars in investments, create thousands of jobs, support domestic energy production, and position America to be the dominant energy exporting country globally,” it added.
The Trump visit comes as the Cameron plant, owned by California-based utility Sempra Energy and located east of Houston, is set to start LNG production soon and full commercial operations within the next two months.
“Over 11,000 workers contributed to the construction of this premier energy infrastructure project which will enable the export of abundant and clean natural gas to global markets, bringing resilience and energy security to millions,” said Sempra ahead of the President’s visit.
As well as benefiting the US economy, the build-out of LNG export plants is providing energy security to allies such as Japan and South Korea, who were among the top recipients of cargoes last year with the Koreans receiving 73 shipments and Japan 37 cargoes.
These volumes will rise as Japan is one of the main customers of the Cameron plant and has built a small fleet of LNG carriers to make shuttle trips for the next 20 years from Louisiana to Japanese import terminals via the Panama Canal.
Our photograph shows one of the newbuild vessels that will carry Cameron LNG volumes, the “Marvel Eagle”.
Each ship in the Cameron-designated Japanese fleet is named after the fictional superheroes of the American comic books published by Marvel.
The other LNG carriers include the 174,000 cubic metres capacity vessels, the “Marvel Falcon” and the “Marvel Hawk” and the 177,000 cubic metres capacity “Marvel Crane”.
The President is visiting the Gulf Coast less than two weeks after the US Department of Energy gave Sempra’s proposed Port Arthur LNG export terminal in southeast Texas approval to export LNG to countries that do not have a free trade agreement with the US.
“I thank President Trump for his commitment to unleashing American energy and supporting Louisiana energy workers,” said US Senator Bill Cassidy, a Louisiana Republican and Chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources Subcommittee on Energy.
“Under the Republican watch, we’ve seen new investment in projects from the well-head to the export facility, bringing billions to our state and creating good-paying jobs for Louisiana workers,”
The White House said this would be the President’s third trip to Louisiana since his inauguration.
The Cameron project’s first phase includes three Trains with export capability of almost 15 million tonnes per annum.
At least two of the three Trains are expected to be exporting LNG by the end of 2019.
The Cameron project is also an example of cooperation between energy companies to keep the global economy moving.
Sempra’s partners in the Cameron joint venture are French major Total, Japanese trading house Mitsui & Co and Japan LNG Investment, a venture owned by Japan’s Mitsubishi Corp. and the Japanese shipping company NYK Line.
When the Cameron plant ships its first cargo it will be the fourth US LNG export facility to begin commercial operations after Cheniere Energy’s Sabine Pass and Corpus Christi plants and Dominion Energy’s Cove Point facility.
The existing US facilities, set to multiply soon, exported a combined 483 shipments in 2018, marking an 84 percent increase from the 262 export cargoes in 2017.
Individual shipments of LNG average 3.3 billion cubic feet of natural gas and enable the US to monetize the huge surplus of its shale-gas production and reserves.
