LNG

Chart Industries Inc., the US equipment-maker for the liquefied natural gas and other clean energy and industrial gases markets, said global end-market demand continued to be strong in 2024.

Chart Industries, the US LNG equipment-maker and industrial gases and clean energy company, reported a record backlog for an eighth consecutive quarter, surpassing $2 billion for the first time in its history.

Chart Industries, the US LNG equipment-maker and industrial gases company, has signed an accord to bring carbon-capture solutions to customers in the Middle East and Africa.

Chart said it signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Abu Dhabi-based Contract and Trading Group (C.A.T. Group) to focus on the two companies providing carbon reduction services to state-owned firms and energy companies.

Atlanta, Georgia-based Chart has expertise in providing liquefaction, regasification, storage and transportation for LNG and industrial gases and already includes carbon-dioxide measures in its offering through the Cryogenic Carbon Capture™ technology of its subsidiary Sustainable Energy Solutions Inc.

Chart acquired Sustainable Energy Solutions in 2020 and the company has 44 US patents issued, a further 17 pending and 20 patents issued internationally relating to carbon-dioxide storage, evaporators and other technologies.

The US company is continuing its expansion into the carbon-capture and cleaner energy sectors while also being among the leaders in providing equipment for LNG export plants on the US Gulf Coast as well as LNG transportation containers and fuel stations.

LNG customers

Chart’s customers include Venture Global’s export facilities in Louisiana, including the new Plaquemines project on the Mississippi River south of New Orleans, Cheniere Energy’s Corpus Christi plant expansion in Texas and Tellurian’s Driftwood project, south of Lake Charles in Louisiana.

“We are excited to partner with C.A.T., a respected global leader in contracting with a particular focus on the energy transition,” said Jill Evanko, Chart CEO and President.

“We anticipate that our companies’ complementary strategies to adopt carbon-capture technologies and complete project solutions will accelerate customer decisions about their clean energy operations, particularly in the Middle East and Africa where carbon-capture is a natural part of the movement towards more sustainability,” added Evanko.

C.A.T. Group has broad customer relationships in the Middle East and Africa and has decades-long project experience.

It offers engineering, procurement and construction as well as project management to customers from its energy, civil, industrial, pipeline, and renewables divisions.

The Group’s CEO, Joseph Gebara, said he was pleased to partner with Chart with its expertise in LNG and other sectors.

“Chart’s technology, equipment and services are highly regarded in the LNG and CO2-capture sectors and together we will offer our customers in the Middle East and Africa complete solutions for the energy transition,” added Gebara.

Chart Industries, the US LNG equipment-maker and industrial gases technology company, said it was given full notice to proceed on its processing and equipment activities for Cheniere Energy’s Corpus Christi Stage Three LNG expansion project.

The Corpus Christi expansion will consist of up to seven mid-scale Trains, each with an expected liquefaction capacity of about 1.49 MTPA with a total production capacity of more than 10 MTPA.

The existing Corpus Christy facility has nameplate capacity of 13.5 MTPA from three Trains.

In conjunction with the FNTP, Chart said it had booked an order valued at over $260 million, which is in addition to the approximately $50M already in backlog as of the end of March for this project.

The orders were received from Bechtel Inc, the lead engineer in the expansion of Cheniere’s Texas plant.

Chart said it would begin recognizing revenue on the Corpus Christi project in 2022 with a multi-year staggered delivery schedule for its equipment, including its IPMSR® processing technology.

Orders build

Chart's recent equipment orders from Gulf Coast LNG export projects have also included provisions for Venture Global’s Plaquemines Phase 1 project for 10 MTPA of LNG at a Louisiana site on the Mississippi River south of New Orleans.

Additionally Chart said the Driftwood project in Louisiana being developed by Houston-based Tellurian Inc. is anticipated to include over $350M of Chart content.

Chart itself continues to grow its technology and services offerings and completed the acquisition at the start of June 2022 of Fronti Fabrications Inc., a specialist in engineering, machining and welding for the cryogenic and gas sectors.

Chart, based in Atlanta, Georgia believes the acquisition will benefit the company’s growing order base in the “Big LNG” and small-scale LNG sectors in the US and elsewhere.

With over 20 years of experience in liquefaction, heat exchangers and cold boxes, Fronti adds a known team to expand Chart’s cold-box manufacturing capacity and capability.

Chart noted that Fronti, which was purchased for $20M, also supplies newbuild pressure vessels and performs repairs with certification to the code of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. 

Chart Industries Inc., the liquefied natural gas equipment-maker and industrial gas technology company, reported first-quarter 2022 all-time record orders of $636.8 million, its fourth record-order quarter out of the past five quarters.

Sempra Energy has been communicating with the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to make sure certain final design enhancements for the already approved fourth liquefaction Train at the Cameron LNG plant in Louisiana will not be subject to any pre-filing processes.

Sempra said it had requested a determination from the Director of the Office of Energy Projects in November 2021 that the scope of the amendment would not be caught up in new regulatory hold-ups.

Cameron LNG has since provided additional information regarding the scope of the altered design.

The company emphasized that the prospective modifications to the previously-approved Train 4 project as proposed by the amendment will not “involve significant state and local safety considerations that have not been previously addressed”.

These include the addition of LNG storage tanks, increasing throughput requiring additional tanker arrivals or the use of larger vessels.

Sempra stated that the proposed design enhancements for Train 4 would not alter or impact the existing marine facilities and would not change Cameron LNG’s current Waterway Suitability Assessment (WSA).

Coast Guard

The company said it had engaged with the United States Coast Guard regarding the proposed amendment and the USCG had determined that Cameron LNG was not required to submit a new “Letter of Intent” or revision to its current WSA for the amendment.

While some parts of the design have been enhanced, others have been withdrawn.

Importantly, there is the removal of the construction of a fifth Train and associated utilities and condensate storage tanks permitted with the original expansion permit.

One of two boil-off gas compressors previously permitted would not be needed and the construction will be wholly within the footprint authorized by the FERC.

However, Sempra noted that the expansion amendment would include about a dozen other design enhancements and additions for Train 4.

Among them are the addition of a feed-gas booster compressor to increase feed-gas pressure to Train 4, a propane refrigeration package to cool the dehydration unit feed gas within Train 4 and the use of “open art technology” on the NGL extraction process in lieu of a proprietary process. 

Chart Industries, the US supplier of LNG equipment and developer of clean energy pathways, has posted its third consecutive quarter of record orders, taking the backlog to more than $1 billion.

New Fortress Energy Inc, the New York-based company with expanding assets after two LNG acquisitions for shipping and Brazilian gas-to-power projects, posted a first-quarter loss as it pursues additional plans for floating LNG and natural gas production.

Chart Industries, the US LNG equipment and industrial gases company, reported record first quarter orders, contributing to the highest backlog of $934.1M and including orders with 105 new customers with LNG at front and centre.

Orders in the first three months of 2021 amounted to $417.2M and were the highest in the history of the Atlantic, Georgia-based company when excluding Big LNG.

Chart reported net income of $26.1M in the quarter to the end of March, a three-fold increase on the $8.5M posted in the first three months of 2020.

The company said 2021 orders were driven by broad based demand, including a recovery in certain end markets, continued demand for clean products and a combination of larger liquefaction orders for LNG and hydrogen or numerous smaller orders.

Chart posted quarterly sales of $288.5M, in line expectations when considering typical seasonality as well as the timing shift from the first quarter 2021 to the second quarter 2021 of approximately $10M of shipments.

ISO containers

These were primarily ISO container orders from China that were shipped in March 2021, though the revenue is recognized in April 2021, as well as $5M of revenue from the Venture Global Calcasieu Pass LNG project in Louisiana based on the delivery schedule.

The quarterly sales were 4.5 percent lower than the $301.9M achieved in the prior-year quarter.

“Record orders (excluding Big LNG) across the broader business in the first quarter 2021, coupled with continued execution on profitability set us up early (and often) for a very strong second half of 2021,” stated Jill Evanko, Chart’s Chief Executive and President.

“We are seeing immediate benefit from our strategic inorganic investments in the order book as reflected in our record backlog, and the momentum in the clean revolution - clean energy, clean water, clean food and clean industrial - is just getting started,” added Evanko.

Chart noted among the earnings highlights the $47M order from New Fortress Energy, the LNG-for-power company based in New York, for its “Fast LNG” project, a 1.4 million tonnes per annum liquefier vessel.

Chart additionally commented on the expansion of LNG fuel for trucking in Europe and Asia and the subsequent demand for Chart equipment.

LNG for trucks

“Since January 2021, night-time transit for diesel Euro IV trucks on the Inntal motorway in Austria is not allowed, so LNG trucks allow business owners to continue to transport goods overnight,” explained Chart.

“For example, OMV Turkey is using LNG trucks (with Chart fuel tanks) and there is increasing activity for LNG trucks and buses in locations such as Japan and India,” added the company.

Chart said full-year 2021 sales were expected to be around $1.36 billion to $1.41Bln, inclusive of $21M of Venture Global’s Calcasieu Pass revenue ($5M of equipment remaining to ship) as well as $30M of expected 2021 revenue from the acquisition of Cryo Technologies.

This is an increase over the prior full year 2021 sales guidance of $1.32Bln to $1.38Bln as a result  of the strong first-quarter order book.

This includes specific liquefaction projects for Plug Power (hydrogen) and New Fortress Energy (FastLNG) and commercial opportunities increasing from investments and acquisitions completed in the past six months.

“There is no additional Big LNG revenue included in our outlook although we believe at least one new order will be received during the year,” added Chart. 

US LNG equipment-maker Chart Industries has completed its acquisition of Sustainable Energy Solutions to offer carbon-capture for projects along with its LNG storage, transportation and liquefaction products.