LNG

Mitsui & Co. of Japan, a leading liquefied natural gas market participant and trader, confirmed the acquisition of shale-gas assets in South Texas with access to LNG export plants on the US Gulf Coast.

Mitsui said it purchased a 92 percent working interest in the Eagle Ford basin assets from a subsidiary of Silver Hill Energy Partners, a private company based in Dallas, Texas.

The assets comprise 8,500 net acres known as the Hawkville field and with easy reach of the region’s LNG export cluster.

The confirmation statement from Mitsui on the acquistion did not include a value for the transaction.

“Additional gas production is expected from this asset with further development,” said the company.

The Eagle Ford acreage will be managed by a company subsidiary, Mitsui E&P USA.

“The subsidiary will develop and operate the asset, aiming for stable gas production of over 200 million cubic feet per day from the field,” Mitsui explained.

Mitsui stated that it was also promoting liquefaction and export of US natural gas to global markets and has methanol production businesses using natural gas as feedstock.

Cameron stake

It has also increased its offtake from the Cameron LNG plant in Louisiana, operated by Sempra Infrastructure, and where the Japanese company has a 16.5 percent shareholding.

However, Mitsui’s LNG assets are global with holdings in the Middle East at liquefaction plants in Qatar, Oman and the United Arab Emirates.

In Asia, Mitsui has an LNG stake in the Tangguh export project in Indonesia and is still a shareholder in the Sakhalin LNG plant in the Russian Far East.

It additionally has a stake in the oldest Australian liquefaction plant, the Woodside-operated Northwest Shelf (NWS) plant, and has an impending tolling deal at NWS using feed gas from the onshore Perth Basin in Western Australia.

“In addition to proactively pursuing upstream development projects, we will strengthen the natural gas value chain, including adjacent businesses,” Mitsui stated.

Mitsui said it believed that natural gas and LNG would play an important role as a “pragmatic solution” for the energy transition and it would continue to contribute to the stable supply of energy.

Kinder Morgan Inc. (KMI) the leading US pipeline feed-gas company for liquefied natural gas plants and a key energy infrastructure developer, increased first-quarter net income and cash flow with more natural gas from the US Gulf Coast shale-gas basins.

The company reported first-quarter net income attributable to KMI of $679 million compared with $667M in the first three months of 2022.

Cash flow for the quarter from operations amounted to $1.33 billion versus $1.08Bln in the prior-year quarter.

“Our natural gas pipeline network is composed of some 70,000 miles of interstate and intrastate pipelines that move about 40 percent of US natural gas production, along with 700 billion cubic feet of natural gas storage, comprising 15 percent of total US natural gas storage capacity,” explained Steve Kean, KMI Chief Executive.

“While the US Congress debates much-needed infrastructure permitting reform, the system we operate under today makes it difficult to permit new natural gas pipelines in much of the country,” Kean stated.

Value added

“That in turn increases the value of our existing natural gas pipeline systems, which results in a favorable recontracting environment,” the CEO added.

“With a large portion of our existing natural gas pipeline network in Texas and Louisiana, we also benefit from our ability to expand to meet growing demand in the most infrastructure-friendly region of the country,” Kean said.

KMI said it was continuing to execute expansions of its existing natural gas pipeline systems.

“During the first quarter we made good progress on two such expansions. One will add approximately 550 million cubic feet per day of capacity to the Permian Highway Pipeline (PHP) system through additional compression with minimal new pipeline build,” said KMI.

“The other will increase capacity and reliability of services to Con Edison, a key business partner, by upgrading and adding compression facilities on the Tennessee Gas Pipeline (TGP) system in a critical region of the country,” the company added.

Gas gathering

KMI President Kim Dang gave an overview and praised the gas gathering systems for keeping the natural gas business on track.

“The Natural Gas Pipelines business segment’s financial performance was up in the first quarter of 2023 relative to the first quarter of 2022, primarily on higher contributions from our Texas Intrastate system, from Midcontinent Express Pipeline, from El Paso Natural Gas (EPNG) and from most of our gathering system assets,” explained Dang.

“Natural gas transport volumes were up 3 percent compared to the first quarter of 2022, primarily from increases on EPNG due to returning a pipeline to service, cooler weather, and the retirement of a coal-fired power plant,” she added.

“Natural gas gathering volumes were up 18 percent from the first quarter of 2022 primarily from our Haynesville and Eagle Ford systems,” Dang said.

Marathon Oil Corp., the shareholder in Equatorial Guinea LNG in West Africa, has completed the acquisition of private equity-backed firm Ensign Natural Resources for $3 billion in cash to almost double its position in the Eagle Ford shale basin of South Texas.

Marathon Oil Corp., the shareholder in Equatorial Guinea LNG in West Africa, has agreed to acquire natural gas assets in the US from private equity-backed firm Ensign Natural Resources for $3 billion in cash to almost double its position in the Eagle Ford shale basin of South Texas.