LNG

Clean Energy Fuels Corp. the California-based supplier of liquefied natural gas made from waste to 540 filling stations across the US and Canada and to commercial customers, supplied fuel for the first bunkering with LNG of shipping group Pasha Hawaii’s new LNG -powered containership, the “George III”.

This was the first LNG bunkering of a container ship on the US West Coast.

Clean Energy said it worked with World Fuel Services and West Coast Clean Fuels to supply the ship with over 300,000 gallons of the clean fuel.

Pasha Hawaii’s “George III” is 774-foot containership operating between Long Beach and Oakland in California and Honolulu in Hawaii.

It is the first of three LNG-powered ships that the domestic shipping company is putting into service.

The three ships are expected to consume 105 million gallons of LNG fuel over the next five years.

“The air quality around the Ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles is some of the worst in the country because of in large part the very dirty marine fuels that have been traditionally used by containerships,” said Andrew J. Littlefair, President and Chief Executive of Clean Energy.

“The move by Pasha to add ships that operate on clean-burning LNG is one the most forward-thinking and environmentally-progressive actions taken in the maritime industry,” added Littlefair.

LNG fleet

“We congratulate Pasha on their first successful bunkering operation and look forward to many more as Pasha continues to add the other LNG-powered ships to their fleet,” he declared.

Clean Energy noted that LNG-powered ships achieve 99.9 percent reduction in diesel particulate matter and sulfur oxide emissions, 90 percent less nitrogen oxides and a 25 percent reduction in carbon dioxide compared to ships running on traditional fuels.

The LNG that powers the Pasha Hawaii container ships is supplied by the Clean Energy plant in Boron, California, the only one of its kind in the state.

Because of the increase in demand for LNG by Pasha and others, Clean Energy is in the process of expanding its Boron LNG plant by adding a third production Train, which will increase capacity by 50 percent when completed.

The “George III” is scheduled to bunker every second week at the Port of Long Beach.

The second Pasha ship to operate on LNG, the “Janet Marie”, is expected in late 2022. The third Pasha ship is expected to be deployed in mid-2023.

Commissioning

Before the LNG-powered vessel arrived at the Port of Long Beach, Clean Energy supported Pasha in the commissioning of the ship.

Clean Energy worked at the shipyard in Brownsville, Texas, to cool down the ship’s LNG storage tank to cryogenic temperature and then performed two bunkering operations to load LNG into the ship tanks.

The LNG was provided from Clean Energy’s Pickens LNG Plant in Texas. The company is a large-scale producer of gas fuel made from waste with its leading brand for vehicles being called “Redeem”.

Clean Energy’s largest shareholder is TotalEnergies, the leading European LNG market participant and project developer with a stake of 19 percent.

Clean Energy and UK major BP are additionally working on a joint venture to build on plans to finance and develop new projects at dairy farms in the US Midwest, Texas and other states to make fuel from waste.

Southern California Gas Co. (SoCalGas), based in Los Angeles and owned by the Louisiana Cameron LNG plant operator, Sempra Energy, has agreed to pay around $1.1 billion in three settlement agreements stemming from the methane leak in 2015 at the SoCalGas Aliso Canyon natural gas storage facility.

The US state of California, which has always rejected large-scale LNG imports or transfers, is now the centre of a major natural gas, power and water crisis blamed on planning policies dictated over the years by environmental activists. 

Oct 11 (LNGJ) - The US Northwest Gas Association is holding a Web discussion on October 24 (put back from October 17) featuring Jon Switalski of Californians for Balanced Energy Solutions. This is a recently launched coalition of natural gas users in California.

   The aim of the event is to educate Californians on the benefits of natural gas and renewable natural gas in their state. The Northwest Gas Association’s mission is to advance the safe, dependable and responsible use of natural gas as a cornerstone of the region’s energy, environmental and economic foundation.

   Pacific Gas and Electric, the utility for 16 million customers in northern and central California, last week declared a public safety power shut-off amid wildfire risk, shutting off power to nearly 800,000 customers in three waves and affecting 34 counties.

Sempra Energy, the California-based utility and owner of the Cameron LNG export plant in Louisiana, said its Mexican subsidiary had reached agreement with the regulators in Mexico on two key natural gas pipelines supplying cross-border US supplies.

The Sempra Energy-led Cameron LNG export project in Hackberry Louisiana has formally asked the federal Energy Regulator for permission to begin the facility's first shipments of commissioning cargoes to free trade agreement countries and non-FTA states as authorized by the Department of Energy.

“Commissioning activities are progressing well for Train 1 and Cameron LNG anticipates exporting LNG produced during commissioning according to the schedule provided,” the Cameron project told the FERC.

“To meet the schedule provided, Cameron LNG is requesting authorization for the commissioning cargoes on or before May 16, 2019,” said the Sempra joint venture.

“With the first production of LNG from Train 1, Cameron LNG will file weekly commissioning reports as requested by the Commission,” the company added.

Sempra, the San Diego, California-based utility has also said it expected to begin posting earnings from the first processing Train by mid-2019.

Sempra has also increased its projected share of full run-rate earnings from the first three Trains at Cameron to be between $400 million and $450M annually, up from the previous projection of $365M to $425M.

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 producing LNG by the end of 2019.

The Cameron project is jointly owned by Sempra, French major Total, Japanese trading house Mitsui & Co and Japan LNG Investment, a venture owned by Japan’s Mitsubishi Corp. and the shipping company Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha, known as NYK Line.

When Cameron ships its first cargo it will be the fourth US LNG export plant to begin commercial operations after Cheniere Energy’s Sabine Pass and Corpus Christi plants and Dominion Energy’s Cove Point facility.

Sempra has a strategy to achieve around 45 MTPA of LNG production by the mid-2020s through three plants it is developing, the Cameron facility, Port Arthur LNG in Texas and the Costa Azul terminal on the Pacific Coast of Mexico.

Sempra Energy, the California utility developing LNG export plants in the US and Mexico, said its Port Arthur LNG project in Texas that will supply nations such as Poland received authorization from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to proceed with construction.

French energy major Total said it was accelerating its expansion along the liquefied natural gas and gas value chains with a strategy based on strong growth in the LNG divisions.

Clean Fuel Corp., the California-based company co-founded by US oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens who is one of the main advocates of LNG fuel for trucking, has put two Total executives on its board after the French energy major bought a stake in 2018 and has retained Pickens as an honorary director.

Sempra Energy chose Franco-US engineering group TechnipFMC and US company Kiewit as the engineering, procurement, construction contractors for transforming the California utility’s LNG import terminal at Costa Azul in northern Mexico into a medium-scale export plant.