LNG

The US Government has issued a waiver of Jones Act shipping rules to help the US territory of Puerto Rico attract LNG shipments amid a tight market and high prices after the recent hurricane damage affected power supplies and energy stocks.

April 14 (LNGJ) - Eagle LNG Partners of the US has signed an agreement with utility Aqualectra with a view to making Curaçao, located in the Caribbean together with sister islands Aruba and Bonaire, an LNG importer. Curaçao is a constituent country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands voted for by the people in 2010.

   The Eagle LNG accord will open the way for Aqualectra to secure LNG in ISO containers shipped from the US state of Florida. “Both parties will continue on with the developments that will make supplying of gas possible. This will result in lower production costs, which ultimately means lower electricity and water prices for the people of Curaçao,” said a statement. The accord was signed by Aqualectra Chief Executive Darick Jonis, and Filipe Pinto, Vice President of Business Development of Eagle LNG. “A possible collaboration between Aqualectra and Eagle LNG brings about a great synergy, as Eagle LNG currently offers its services in Aruba as well,” added Eagle.

Feb 24 (LNGJ) - US company Eagle LNG marked a series of firsts when it fueled the 7,500-car carrier “SIEM Aristotle” from its Talleyrand LNG Bunker Station at the Jacksonville Port Authority (Jaxport) in Jacksonville, Florida. The “SIEM Aristotle” is the first deep-sea pure car, truck carrier (PCTC) equipped with dual-fuel engines designed to operate on LNG and marine gas oil.

   “It was the first time ‘SIEM Aristotle’ had been refueled from a landside bunkering facility and the first ship that Eagle LNG had refueled of that size from the bunkering station,” said Eagle. The “SIEM Aristotle” and sister ship “SIEM Confucius” are chartered from Norway’s SIEM Shipping to Volkswagen to transport automobiles from the northwest German port of Emden to the US East and Gulf Coasts and Mexico.

Dec 9 (LNGJ) - Fincantieri Bay Shipbuilding, based in Wisconsin near the Sturgeon Bay Ship Canal and Lake Michigan, has delivered the LNG bunkering barge “Clean Canaveral” to US NorthStar Midstream’s subsidiary Polaris New Energy. 

   The latest US bunkering barge has 5,400 cubic metres of capacity and will refuel LNG-powered vessels at ports in Florida. The LNG fuel will be sourced from a small-scale liquefaction plant near the port of Jacksonville. Polaris New Energy signed an agreement in November 2021 for the Wisconsin yard to build a sister ship to the “Clean Canaveral” to meet growing LNG fuel demand in the US.  

The LNG supply company in the US state of Florida owned by Pivotal LNG and NorthStar Midstream, plans to increase the liquefaction capabilities to 360,000 gallons per day and double its storage capacity to 4 million gallons using the growing expertise of construction services companies in the US small-scale LNG sector.

Quality LNG Transport, a service company founded by New Orleans-based Harvey Gulf International Marine, said its LNG bunkering barge “Q-LNG 4000” had arrived in Port Canaveral in Florida under charter to Shell to begin fuelling operations in the months ahead for Carnival Corp. cruises.

The US Department of Energy has removed the requirement for long-term LNG export authorization holders to seek separate short-term permits to export volumes, boosting the flexibility of US companies in the spot cargo market.

By consolidating this authority in a single authorization without any increase in total approved export volumes, the DoE said it was a move to streamline its regulatory process.

“This policy is a sensible and concrete way DoE can remove unnecessary regulatory burdens for LNG exporters,” said Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette.

“Those exports bring benefits to our economy, while also helping to reduce global emissions,” added Brouillette in reference to US shipments to Asia helping to enable the switch from coal to gas.

The DoE believes that this deregulatory measure would lead to administrative efficiency.

It would also remove a duplicative requirement for exports of LNG to have DoE authorization for the short-term market, where the authorization holder already has long-term export authority.

Concurrent with this policy statement, DOE added that it was amending several long-term LNG export orders to add short-term export authority to the long-term orders.

“We are increasingly seeing more sales of LNG on the spot market, and this action by DoE is allowing more flexibility for US LNG exporters,” explained Deputy Secretary of Energy Mark W. Menezes.

“With this policy, US LNG exporters can let the market - not our regulatory process - determine which LNG cargos will be exported under long-term or short-term agreements on the spot market,” stated Menezes.

Acting Under Secretary of Energy and Assistant Secretary for Fossil Energy Steven Winberg said LNG export policies should support the market aims of US companies.

“We want to have a sensible regulatory system that takes current market realities into account, and this policy statement does just that,” added Winberg.

At the start of January 2021, the DoE also issued its fourth set of LNG export authorizations through to 2050.

This action followed several LNG export term extensions issued since October 2020 pursuant to its global export policies.

The latest term extensions were given to the Southern LNG export facility operating in Georgia, the Elba Island plant, as well as Sempra Energy’s Cameron facility in Louisiana.

The new permits have also been given to the Annova LNG project proposed in Texas and Eagle LNG’s two small-scale facilities in Florida, including the Maxville facility currently in operation.

These issuances extended each project’s long-term LNG export authorization to non-free trade agreement (non-FTA) countries through December 31, 2050. 

Term extensions now apply to permits now held by 18 US LNG export projects, as well as the Costa Azul project in Mexico. 

The Canadian business of Clough Enercore is rebranding to fully integrate into Clough’s North American unit whose project contracts have spanned work for ventures such as LNG Canada, Freeport LNG in Texas and Eagle LNG in Florida.

Chart Industries, the US supplier of equipment for the industrial gas, energy and liquefied natural gas sectors, also supplies medical oxygen for critical care and had to increase production by over 50 percent to meet continued demand for COVID-19 patients.

This was in addition to lining up LNG fuel products for Royal Dutch Shell and securing its biggest ever industrial gases sale in China.

“All Chart manufacturing locations globally have been deemed essential business by each local and federal government and therefore continue to operate under this status,” said the company in its first-quarter earnings report.

“During March 2020, we increased production on specific medical oxygen related products by over 65 percent in the US and 50 percent in the Czech Republic,” added the Atlanta, Georgia-based Chart.

Additionally, Chart stated that orders for its cryobiological product line used for storage and transport of vaccinations, cell therapy and biological inventory increased by 14 percent to $20.8 million in the first quarter of 2020 when compared to the first quarter of 2019. 

“Typically, my quote would be about the financials and decisive, agile responsiveness during this unprecedented time,” said Chart Chief Executive Jill Evanko.

“The related facts in this release contain that information, but I would like to thank our team members who, as essential personnel, have worked tirelessly and safely to increase production on critical care products that are being used globally to save lives,” stated the CEO.

In its core LNG and industrial gases business Chart’s order backlog of $733M was flat compared with the first quarter of 2019, which included $135M of equipment for US developer Venture Global’s Calcasieu Pass LNG project.

Excluding Calcasieu Pass, backlog increased 6.8 percent year on year.

There was a first-quarter order backlog of $151M for the Distribution & Storage Western Hemisphere division, up 18.7 percent and its highest ever.

Overall, first-quarter orders amounted to $304.3M and were 34 percent less than the prior-year quarter.

The first quarter of 2019 had included the Venture Global Calcasieu Pass order ($135M), Golar’s floating “LNG Gimi” tanker conversion project ($20M) and Niche LNG’s small-scale LNG work ($7M).

In the second of its four divisions, Distribution & Storage Eastern Hemisphere, Chart booked 14 LNG fueling stations, which is the same level as the first quarter 2019.

“Additionally, in April we received verbal commitment from Shell for the supply of seven LNG fueling stations,” said Chart.

“Our teams are currently working toward a multiyear long-term contract whereby Shell will place the order for up to four stations in the second quarter of 2020 and three more in 2021,” the company added.

“The multiyear agreement will allow for expansion of these quantities with privileged support to Shell’s business plans and strategy for LNG in Europe,” stated Chart.

Chart said backlog in China was $68M at the end of the first quarter and subsequently the company received its largest industrial gas order in its history from China in early April, though gave no details.

Chart also received a letter of intent for process technology and associated equipment for Eagle LNG’s Jacksonville project in Florida.

Industrial plant orders of $4.7M were received by its Energy & Chemicals Cryogenics division for retrofitting a refinery with air cooled heat-exchangers.

Chart’s fourth division, called E&C FinFans, recorded its highest orders in the first quarter compared with the previous three quarters, including $23M in the month of March.

“This is specific to air coolers, and we expect fans products to continue to grow year-over-year,” said Chart.

Dominion Energy has closed its acquisition of Pivotal LNG from the utility, Southern Company, to enter the small-scale market for deliveries by containers, trucks and to be a supplier to the maritime fuel market.