LNG

Enbridge Inc, the Canadian-based pipeline and energy company, has agreed to acquire three natural gas businesses from US utility and renewables-focused Dominion Energy in transactions valued at US$14 billion (C$19Bln) to create the largest North American gas utility franchise.

The US Government has reduced its previous benchmark Henry Hub price forecast my over $1 per million British thermal units while LNG exports are set to rise and American consumers will pay 45 percent more for their winter heating oil compared with last winter.

Seventeen LNGCs sailed from the US between 4^th August and 10^th August, according to shipping data provided by Bloomberg Finance to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA).

Eight LNGCs left Sabine Pass, four from Corpus Christi, three from Cameron and one each from Calcasieu Pass and Cove Point. 

They had a combined LNG-carrying capacity of 64 bill cu ft.

During the period, the Henry Hub spot price rose 6 cents to $7.89 per MMBtu, while the price of the September 2022 NYMEX contract fell by 6 cents to $8.202 per MMBtu yesterday. 

The 12-month strip price averaging September, 2022 through August, 2023 futures contracts dropped by 2 cents to $6.732 per MMBtu.

According to Bloomberg Finance, weekly average futures prices for LNG cargoes in East Asia increased 65 cents to a weekly average of $44.61 per MMBtu, and natural gas futures for delivery at the Title Transfer Facility (TTF) in the Netherlands, fell by 38 cents to a weekly average of $59.16 per MMBtu.

Data supplied by PointLogic, showed that the average total supply of natural gas in the US fell by 0.1% (0.1 bill cu ft per day), compared with the previous reporting week. Average net imports from Canada dropped by 6% (0.3 bill cu ft per day) from the last week.

Natural gas exports to Mexico fell by 3.3% (0.2 bill cu ft per day). Natural gas deliveries to US LNG export facilities (LNG pipeline receipts) averaged 10.8 bill cu ft per day, 0.1 bill lower than last week, the EIA said, quoting PointLogic.

Brazilian state-run oil and gas company Petroleo Brasileiro SA, known as Petrobras, has begun the binding phase in the sale process of its 10 percent remaining stake in gas pipeline firm Nova Transportadora do Sudeste (NTS) at the same time as reviving the possibility of floating LNG production.

The US Department of Energy has just published its latest LNG data and the most interesting aspect of the report was the difference in pricing of cargoes shipped from from the three plants in operation, Cheniere Energy’s Sabine Pass in Louisiana, its Corpus Christi plant in Texas and the Dominion Energy-operated Cove Point facility in Maryland.

US pipeline company Kinder Morgan said it would start-up its Elba Island LNG export plant in Georgia in late April after receiving regulatory permission in early March to introduce feed-gas, back-up fuel and boil-off gas into its systems comprising 10 small-scale liquefaction Trains.

Kinder Morgan said it had expected the first train to come on line by the end of March and the remaining Trains following during the year.

However, the project has been hit by minor construction delays. The start-up had previously been expected by the end of 2018.

“Kinder Morgan has revised its initial in-service date expectations for the Elba Liquefaction Project as a result of delays during construction,” said the company.

“The first unit of the project is now expected to be in commercial service in late April,” it added.

Elba Island is an existing import terminal that has been transformed into an export plant to produce an initial 2.5 million tonnes per annum of LNG.

Kinder Morgan, based in Houston, has developed the plant at a cost of just $2 billion and will have feed-gas needs equivalent to around 350 million cubic feet per day.

The Georgia terminal is among three US liquefaction facilities that are expected to begin service in 2019, adding to the country's growing energy export industry.

Start-ups for Elba Island, Sempra Energy’s Cameron LNG in Louisiana and the Freeport plant in Texas would double the number of US LNG export terminals in operation.

The Cameron and Freeport projects have also been delayed by holds ups and problems in construction.

According to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the liquefaction Trains 1-6 at Elba Island are expected to start entering service at one-month intervals.

Elba Island’s Trains 7-10 are then scheduled to come on stream in the third quarter of 2019.

The Georgia project is supported by a 20-year supply contract with Royal Dutch Shell.

The coming on stream of Elba Island on the east Coast follows the shipping of the first cargo a year ago from the Cove Point in Maryland on Chesapeake Bay, operated by Dominion Energy.

The two Cheniere Energy plants on the Gulf Coast at Sabine Pass in Louisiana and Corpus Christi in Texas give the US four operational export plants and five when Cameron LNG starts in the weeks ahead.

Dominion Energy has begun a scheduled three-week maintenance at the Cove Point liquefied natural gas export plant, leaving Sabine Pass as the only US LNG cargo exporter through mid-October 2018, as it also sold three power plants in the US Northeast and Louisiana.

Dominion Energy, the owner of the Cove Point liquefied natural gas export plant on Chesapeake Bay in Maryland, has secured $3 billion in lending commitments from over 20 banks for a three-year term loan that underscored that bankability of LNG.

US LNG export data from the Department of Energy shows that buyers at the Sabine Pass plant in Louisiana paid a maximum of $6.09 per million British thermal units at the export point compared with up to $8.16 per MMBtu at the Cove Point plant in Maryland.

UK energy major BP and its partners in the Shah Deniz Consortium announced the start-up of the landmark Shah Deniz II natural gas development in Azerbaijan, including its first commercial gas delivery to Turkey as the starting point for the Southern Gas Corridor to compete with Middle East, North African and US LNG shipments.