LNG

Williams Companies, the North American pipeline natural gas and storage and gathering operator, plans to proceed with the Louisiana Energy Gateway (LEG) natural gas pipeline even in the face of an ongoing dispute.

The Tulsa, Oklahoma-based company has notified the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission that it intends to proceed as early as July 25 with construction of the pipeline to carry 1.8 billion cubic feet per day

The Louisiana Energy Gateway will transport Haynesville shale gas to the US Gulf Coast and is now scheduled to come on stream in the second half of 2025, though commissioning was originally planned for late 2024.

Williams currently has 33,000 miles of pipelines to move about one third of the nation’s natural gas.

Moving forward

The company has told FERC it was moving forward with work despite pending rulings, saying it recently “won victories in certain right-of-way litigation” with subsidiaries of Energy Transfer LP in Louisiana state courts involving proposed pipeline crossings for the LEG system.

The company said those victories, along with securing the necessary easements and FERC permits, would allow it to proceed with the work.

“Without the crossing litigation with Energy Transfer, construction of the system would already be well underway,” Williams stated.

The Energy Transfer legal counsel has countered by claiming that Williams was circumventing (FERC’s) Natural Gas Act authority to review jurisdiction of the Louisiana Energy Gateway project.

Energy Transfer, based in Dallas, Texas, has also pointed out “inconsistencies” between Williams’ testimony in a Louisiana state court that LEG had already begun construction.

The attorney’s letter to FERC ended with a suggestion that the Commission should clarify the rules soon on whether or not the Williams project was subject to FERC jurisdiction.

Appeals court

The Louisiana Second District Court of Appeals has already overturned a ruling that prevented DT Midstream Inc. from building a natural gas pipeline running beneath Energy Transfer’s Tiger pipeline system.

Williams had filed a brief on behalf of DT Midstream in that case.

Williams confirmed in its fourth-quarter earnings in February 2024 that it had received certificates for Transco's Commonwealth Energy Connectors, the Southside Reliability Enhancement and the Southeast Energy Connector as well as the Texas-to-Louisiana Energy Pathway.

The company has operations in four main business segments, Transmission & Gulf of Mexico, Northeast G&P, West operations and Gas & Natural Gas Liquids Marketing Services.

Williams has additionally acquired a portfolio of 115 Bcf of natural gas storage, positioning the company as the largest storage owner on the Gulf Coast as storage needs rise.

EQT Corp., the largest shale-gas operator in the US Appalachian Basin and a future LNG market stakeholder, has completed the acquisition of Equitrans Midstream earlier than expected after the Equitrans-operated Mountain Valley Pipeline came online in June 2024.

Bechtel Energy, the leading US and global liquefied natural gas engineering and construction company, said it was looking to hire for more than 500 roles for the Port Arthur LNG export project in Texas as building gets underway.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has introduced reforms to ensure the US transmission grid can meet the nation’s growing demand for reliable electricity with a new rule that outlines how to plan and pay for facilities that regions of the country will need to keep the lights on and power the American economy through the 21st Century.

Venture Global LNG, the developer of the Plaquemines export plant on the Mississippi River, expects in new regulatory filings to begin production around mid-2024 at the eighth US LNG export facility and the second plant owned and operated by Venture Global.

The Arlington, Virginia-based company has requested approval from the US Department of Energy’s Fossil Fuels body to receive up to three imported LNG cargoes as part of the Plaquemines commissioning process to cool down equipment ahead of the plant start-up.

Plaquemines has also asked for and received Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approval for natural gas supply to be delivered on its Gator Express pipeline venture.

“Plaquemines LNG submitted Volume 321 of the Implementation Plan, which contained information regarding the introduction of gas to the gas gate,” said the FERC filing.

LNG confidential

Plaquemines also requested that the response and attachments “be treated as both privileged and confidential and withheld from public disclosure” as they contain proprietary information used by Plaquemines LNG and its third-party consultants that is “customarily treated” as privileged and confidential.

Even though the role of the FERC is to inform the public about energy developments Venture Global has almost permanently requested non-disclosure by the FERC as the information “could result in commercial and competitive harm” to Plaquemines LNG and its consultants.

The Plaquemines liquefaction facility is on a 630-acre site with 1.3 miles of Mississippi River frontage.

The Gator Express venture comprises two pipelines, each with capacity of around 1.9 billion cubic feet per day to deliver natural gas from pipeline interconnections to the Plaquemines plant located about 20 miles south of New Orleans.

The liquefaction plant’s total planned capacity is 20 million tonnes per annum with the first phase to produce 10 MTPA.

Long commissioning

Venture Global's existing Calcasieu Pass plant in Louisiana shipped its first cargo in March 2022 and comprises 18 small-scale modular liquefaction Trains each with 0.626 million tonnes per annum of capacity and configured in nine blocks for total nameplate output of 11.26 MTPA.

In addition to the Plaquemines plant Venture Global is developing the CP2 project, so called because it will be built adjacent to the Calcasieu Pass facility, and the Delta LNG plant.

The three newer plants will each have nameplate capacity of around 20 MTPA.

Venture Global has signed up many energy companies from around the world as long-term customers for its various projects.

The company has also been the subject of complaints and arbitration proceedings brought by customers such as Shell and BP over the commissioning process at Calcasieu Pass.

The commissioning has lasted for more than two years, and thus deprived customers of contracted cargoes available once commissioning comes to an end and the commercial start-up begins.

FERC finally intervened in the long-running dispute between Venture Global LNG and its Calcasieu Pass LNG export plant in Louisiana and major customers over delays in activating sales and purchase agreements (SPAs) for contract cargoes.

The regulator asked Venture Global to explain why it has extensively filed “confidential” documents in relation to the Calcasieu Pass export project.

Tellurian Inc., the developer of the Driftwood LNG export project in Louisiana, has been the focus of attention at the CERAWeek energy conference in Houston, Texas, with executives being asked whether they would consider a bid for the firm now put on the block by investment bank Lazards.

Texas LNG, the US export project being constructed in the Port of Brownsville in Texas as a subsidiary of New York-based Glenfarne Energy Transition, has signed a supply accord with the Singapore-based trading unit of global commodities firm Gunvor.

US energy regulators have finally intervened in the long-running dispute between Venture Global LNG and its Calcasieu Pass LNG export plant in Louisiana and major customers over delays in activating sales and purchase agreements (SPAs) for contract cargoes.

Texas LNG, the liquefied natural gas export plant to be constructed by New York-based Glenfarne Group in the Port of Brownsville, has received its last regulatory clearances opening the way for a final investment decision.

Venture Global LNG has told the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) that it could not meet contracts to provide cargoes from the Calcasieu Pass export plant in Louisiana to major customers because the facility was not yet ready to meet three criteria in the sales and purchase agreements.