LNG

Clean Energy Fuels Corp., the California-based supplier of liquefied natural gas and natural gas fuel made from waste and 540 filling stations across the US and Canada, said it had signed deals for over 58 million gallons of its Redeem brand as its customer base extends.

Sempra’s Energy’s Cameron LNG export plant in Louisiana said it was shutting down ahead of the arrival of Hurricane Delta on the US Gulf Coast after just resuming operations in the past week.

“We have decided to implement a controlled shutdown of the facility this morning with a safely sequestered ride-out team until Hurricane Delta passes, at which point, we will recommence LNG production,” Said a statement from the Cameron plant.

Cheniere Energy reduced the amount of natural gas flowing to its Sabine Pass plant, though didn't say of it was moving to a complete shut down.

The last major storm, Hurricane Laura, passed close to the Cameron and Sabine Pass facilities at the end of August and both companies evacuated personnel and shut the plants  before the storm made landfall.

The amount of pipeline gas flowing to Sabine fell from a five-month high of 4.0 billion cubic feet per day on October 6 to 3.5 bcf per day on October 7, according to energy data.

Sempra previously shut the Cameron plant located on the Calcasieu Ship Channel on August 26 and had to wait until September 27 to begin the re-start after a power outage suffered because of damage to the transmision lines of the local utility Entergy Corp.

The Cameron management said they had also worked with the US Army Corp. of Engineers and Lake Charles Pilots on their progress towards reopening the Calcasieu Ship Channel to deep draft vessel traffic.

It then shipped its first cargo on October 5 on the 180,000 cubic metres capacity “SK Audace”, only to shut operations again as Hurricane Delta approached.

Sempra’s third Train only came on stream in May 2020 after achieving commercial operations with Train 1 and Train 2 in August 2019 and February 2020 respectively.

Sempra is still on track to be a premier North American LNG infrastructure company, with two other export projects being developed at Port Arthur in Texas and Costa Azul on the Pacific Coast of Mexico.

The company owns a 50.2 percent interest in Cameron LNG, and output is now being ramped to a nameplate of 12 million tonnes per annum, or 1.7 billion cubic feet per day of natural gas.

The other shareholders are French major Total, Japanese trading house Mitsui & Co. and Japan LNG Investment, a joint venture involving Mitsubishi Corp. and Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha (NYK Line).

Japanese trading houses Mitsubishi and Mitsui are also off-takers at the plant, while other Asian term customers include Japanese utility companies JERA Co. Inc., Tokyo Gas and Kansai Electric. 

French energy major Total said it planned to expand its Mozambique liquefied natural gas project with up to two additional processing Trains, taking the total up to four Trains.

French energy major Total said it paid $3.9 billion to close the acquisition of Anadarko Petroleum’s 26.5 percent operated interest in the Mozambique LNG project from Anadarko purchaser Occidental Petroleum.

Occidental Petroleum Corp. recorded a fall in second-quarter profits as it advanced with its takeover of Anadarko Petroleum whose shareholders are scheduled to vote on the deal on August 8, deciding the final destination of a major stake in Mozambique LNG.

French energy major Total said it doubled its first-quarter liquefied natural gas sales with the start-up of several projects as it put a price tag on its new Arctic LNG stake and signed up for two other key projects elsewhere.