LNG

Cameron LNG, the US plant operated by Sempra, has signed an accord with power company Entergy Louisiana to negotiate the terms and conditions for a new electric service agreement (ESA) to reduce the liquefaction and export plant’s Scope 2 emissions from the electricity it purchases from Entergy.

Ineos Group, the UK multinational chemicals company with ethane trading links to the US Gulf Coast, has signed an accord with Sempra Infrastructure to secure future cargoes from the planned Port Arthur LNG export project in Texas or the expansion of the existing Cameron LNG plant at Hackberry in Louisiana.

The French major TotalEnergies has signed an agreement with Sempra Infrastructure of the US and the other partners in the Cameron LNG plant in Louisiana for the development of the Hackberry Carbon Sequestration (HCS) project in Cameron Parish.

The other signatories to the deal are Japanese trading houses Mitsui & Co. and Mitsubishi Corp.

TotalEnergies said the HCS project was primarily designed for capture, transportation, and storage of carbon dioxide (CO2) from Cameron LNG.

“The CO2 will be captured by the acid gas removal units, dehydrated, compressed, and transported by pipeline about 10 kilometres away,” the French company explained.

“It will then be permanently stored in a saline aquifer using an injection well with a capacity of up to 2 million tons of CO2 per year,” added TotalEnergies.

Permits

The HCS project filed an application in August 2021 with the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for the construction permit of such an injection well and was the first accepted by the EPA in Louisiana.

“We are pleased to join forces with our partners to significantly reduce CO2 emissions at the Cameron LNG export terminal, thus enabling us to supply our customers with low-carbon LNG,” said Thomas Maurisse, Senior Vice President LNG at TotalEnergies.

Justin Bird, Chief Executive of Sempra Infrastructure, which operates the Cameron plant and holds the assets of two LNG export projcts in Mexico and at Port Arthur in Texas, said the company was pleased to be advancing the development of the Hackberry CO2 project.

“This project is expected to be among the first North America carbon-capture facilities designed to receive and store CO2 from multiple sources,” added Bird.

TotalEnergies noted that development of the Hackberry project remained subject to definitive agreements, obtaining all the necessary permits and with all partners reaching a final investment decision.

Expansion

Cameron LNG is also the subject of an expansion in the form of a single Train with a production capacity of around 6.75 million tonnes per annum, taking capacity over 20 MTPA.

The plant will also be subject to a debottlenecking process to increase the efficiency and output of the existing three liquefaction Trains.

Sempra has also now put the Port Arthur project in Texas back on the fast track route to development.

The proposed Port Arthur plant has all its regulatory permits and will be constructed on a 3,000-acre site in Jefferson County in Texas and with an initial 13.5 MTPA of production.

Sempra Infrastructure, the owner of LNG assets on the US Gulf Coast and Mexico, has signed a preliminary supply accord with the Polish Oil and Gas Company for 3 million tonnes per annum of shipments from Louisiana and Texas.

A heads of agreement (HOA) was signed for a potential Polish deal with the cargoes delivered on a free-on-board bases from Sempra’s Cameron LNG plant at Hackberry in Louisiana, which is being expanded.

“The agreement underscores our commitment to help provide greater energy security to Poland and our global partners through long-term LNG sales,” said Dan Brouillette, President of Sempra Infrastructure, an affiliate of San Diego, California-based utility Sempra.

“Our relationship with PGNiG is core to this commitment, and we are excited to continue working closely with them to advance more reliable, secure and increasingly clean energy solutions,” added Brouillette.

Iwona Waksmundzka-Olejniczak, President of Polish Oil and Gas, said the accord paved the way for negotiations of detailed terms.

Commercial path

“LNG is already one of the cornerstones of our diversified strategy to enhance Polish energy security, as well as to strengthen the commercial potential of the PGNiG Group,” she added.

Sempra stated that the accord may result in the finalization of definitive 20-year LNG sale and purchase agreements (SPAs) for 2 MTPA from the Cameron LNG Phase 2 project expansion in Louisiana and 1 MTPA from the Port Arthur LNG project under development in Texas.

“The HOA also provides PGNiG the opportunity in 2022 to reallocate volumes from the Cameron LNG Phase 2 project to the Port Arthur LNG project,” explained Sempra.

Sempra's Cameron LNG Phase 2 expansion will be in the form of a single LNG Train with a production capacity of around 6.75 MTPA of LNG.

The plant will also be subject to a debottlenecking process to increase the efficiency and output of the existing three liquefaction Trains.

Sempra has now put the Port Arthur project in Texas back on the fast track route to development.

The proposed Port Arthur LNG plant has all its regulatory permits and will be constructed on a 3,000-acre site in Jefferson County in Texas and with an initial 13.5 MTPA of capacity.

Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha, the Japanese shipping company known as NYK Line which has a US LNG investment and a fleet of 660 vessels from tankers to containerships and car carriers, has signed six long-term charters for LNG carriers with China National Offshore Oil Corp.

US energy executive Whitney “Whit” Fairbanks, who has previously managed the Peru LNG export plant for Hunt Oil, has been named President of Cameron LNG, the export plant at Hackberry in Louisiana developed by US utility Sempra Energy.

Sempra Infrastructure, a new subsidiary of Californian utility Sempra Energy, said it was planning a second liquefied natural gas export plant on the Pacific Coast of Mexico.

Sempra Energy, the owner of the US Cameron LNG export plant in Louisiana, the Port Arthur venture in Texas and the Costa Azul liquefaction project in Mexico, has signed an preliminary accord to supply Poland with 2 million tonnes per annum of cargoes.

Sempra’s LNG unit has entered into a memorandum of understanding with the Polish Oil and Gas Company (PGNiG) for the cargoes from its portfolio projects in North America.

“We look forward to continuing to work with PGNiG to help meet their energy objectives from our strategically positioned LNG facilities and development projects on the Gulf and Pacific Coasts of North America,” said Justin Bird, Chief Executive of Sempra LNG.

Paweł Majewski, CEO of PGNiG, said his company valued its relationship with Sempra LNG and was keen to continue developing these ties.

“The MOU allows for shifting the volumes originally contracted at Port Arthur LNG to other facilities from Sempra's projects portfolio,” explained Majewski.

Sempra, based in San Diego, California, is also developing additional LNG facilities and carbon sequestration infrastructure along the value chain on the Gulf and Pacific Coasts.

Sempra explained that the Polish accord was non-binding and was completed in connection with the termination of a previous sale and purchase agreement (SPA) signed between the parties in 2018 that provided for 2 MPTA of LNG shipments to be delivered from the Port Arthur plant.

Sempra LNG owns a 50.2 percent interest in Cameron LNG, a three-Train export facility operating in Hackberry in Louisiana.

Sempra is currently considering the scale of a proposed expansion of the plant through one additional liquefaction Train with an offtake capacity of over 6 MTPA.

Sempra LNG along with its Mexican subsidiary, IEnova, and French major TotalEnergies are transforming the existing import terminal at Costa Azul in the state of Baja California into an export plant.

The first phase is already under construction and first production of LNG is expected by the end of 2024.

Sempra added that a potential Costa Azul expansion project was in the early stages of development.

Sempra Energy has given a strategy report on its LNG export plans and talks with Asian buyers on project offtake after its third-quarter earnings report, while also covering California natural gas regulations and investments and its valuable Oncor utility business in Texas.

Japanese trading house Mitsui is emerging as a key partner in the liquefied natural gas projects being built up on the US Gulf Coast and on the Pacific Coast of Mexico by California-based utility Sempra Energy.