LNG

The Rio Grande LNG export plant proposed for a 984-acre site in the Port of Brownsville in Texas has been issued with a notice to proceed by regulators with the implementation plan and site preparation as well as equipment mobilization.

Golden Pass LNG, the US export project being developed in Jefferson County in Texas, has received a seven-year extension from regulators to complete construction. 

Oct 17 (LNGJ) - The White House has nominated James P. Danly, of Tennessee, to be a member of the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the regulator of LNG export plants and other oil and gas infrastructure. Danly would replace the late Kevin J. McIntyre who died in January 2019 before completing his five-term to June 2023.

   Danly is a lawyer by profession who has served as General Counsel of the FERC and before that as a member of an energy regulation and litigation law firm. He was a managing director of the Institute for the Study of War and is a former US Army officer who served two tours in Iraq, receiving a Bronze Star and Purple Heart.

US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Chairman Neil Chatterjee said at the plenary session of the Gastech 2019 conference in Houston that there were important potential climate benefits from US liquefied natural gas exports, especially for Asian countries.

Lake Charles LNG, the export project being pursued by pipeline and midstream company Energy Transfer and Royal Dutch Shell, has filed with regulators for an extension to mid-December 2025 for the venture to be completed and a final decision to go-ahead is expected by year-end.

French energy major Total and Tellurian Inc. of the US have signed definitive agreements for $500 million of investments in the US Driftwood LNG export plant and for two Total subsidiaries to buy a total of 2.5 million tonnes per annum of LNG.

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.

The American Petroleum Institute and the International Association of Oil and Gas Producers have jointly outlined ways to increase US LNG exports to countries in the European Union.

Venture Global, the US LNG project developer with two export plants proposed for Louisiana, has filed with regulators to permit its construction of a third plant in the Gulf Coast state.

The Arlington, Virginia-based company filed with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for a venture called Delta LNG and its associated Delta Express pipeline.

The company’s first and most advanced plant is at Calcasieu Pass in Louisiana with current nameplate export volumes of 12 million tonnes per annum and is expected to come on stream in 2022, along with associated facilities, including the TransCameron Pipeline.

Venture Global, owned by former investment banker Michael Sabel and lawyer Robert Pender who act as joint chief executives, is also constructing a second plant at Plaquemines near river mile-marker 55 on the west side of the Mississippi River, 30 miles south of New Orleans.

The Mississippi River project has current output targets of 20 MTPA of LNG and was set to include small-scale liquefaction Trains, four LNG storage tanks and three marine loading berths.

The Delta LNG plant is also proposed for Plaquemines Parish and would have peak capacity to process 24 MTPA.

The filing made on April 17 also requested the start of a permit process for a 287-mile pipeline called Delta Express between Perryville in Louisiana, crossing into the neighbouring state of Mississippi, and then back into Louisiana to connect to the LNG plant.

According to a preliminary schedule the third Venture Global project could see construction start in late 2021 and the plant shipping its first cargo by November 2024.

Venture Global had in March 2019 that it planned to expand the scope of its LNG development business on the US Gulf Coast to 60 MTPA of production based on customer demand, almost doubling current plans for 32 MTPA of output.

Co-CEOs Pender and Sabel said that having fully contracted Calcasieu Pass and anticipating completion of Plaquemines LNG an expansion was being studied to meet additional customer demand.

“We believe our model of mid-scale modular liquefaction is the future of low-cost LNG production,” they said.

Venture Global noted that the Calcasieu Pass project with its planned 10 MTPA of output had received all federal authorizations.

The project’s engineering contractor, Kiewit Energy of Omaha, Nebraska, is now carrying out site preparation in advance of construction.

The Calcasieu Pass plant has signed binding 20-year sale and purchase agreements with companies such as Royal Dutch Shell, BP of the UK, Italian utility Edison, Portugal’s Galp Energia, Repsol of Spain and Poland’s national oil and gas company.

The Plaquemines project is expected to receive its final regulatory authorization in August and commence construction later in 2019.

The US Annova liquefied natural gas export project planned for the south bank of the Brownsville Ship Channel in Texas, and whose owners include Chicago-based power company Exelon Corp., is expected to be given the go-ahead after receiving a final environmental impact statement from regulators.