LNG

GALP Energia, the Portuguese oil and gas company which recently agreed to sell its 10 percent stake in the Mozambique LNG project, posted higher adjusted second-quarter net profits.

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.

Oct 12 (LNGJ) - The 174,000 cubic metres capacity LNG carrier “British Listener” is scheduled to arrive this weekend in the Rovuma Basin of Mozambique, according to shipping data. The arrival coincides with expectations of the first commercial cargo lifting from the “Coral-Sul FLNG” floating production project. The destination of “British Listener” is listed as Porto Amelia in Cabo Delgado province near where the FLNG hull is deployed.

   The “Coral-Sul FLNG” production vessel has been receiving gas from the Rovuma Basin resources for the start of annual output of 3.4 million tonne per annum. Italy’s Eni is upstream operator of the FLNG project along with Area 4 licence partners ExxonMobil Corp., China National Petroleum Corp., Galp Energia of Portugal, Korea Gas Corp. and Mozambique’s ENH, the state energy company.

Italian energy engineering company Saipem has been awarded an additional $150 million Mozambique LNG contract relating to the “Coral-Sul FLNG” vessel, a production hull set to be onstream later in 2022 in the offshore Rovuma Basin.

Dec 24 (LNGJ) - The “Coral-Sul FLNG” vessel, the floating LNG hull to be deployed in Mozambique in southeast Africa, is scheduled to arrive on January 5, 2022, in the offshore Rovuma Basin from the Samsung Heavy Industries shipyard in Geoje in South Korea, according to shipping data. The vessel is shown currently off the Indian Ocean island nation of Mauritius.

   Italian energy company Eni is the operator of the Mozambique Rovuma Basin Area 4 licence. The other partners are ExxonMobil Corp., China National Petroleum Corp., Galp of Portugal, Korea Gas Corp. and Mozambique’s Empresa Nacional de Hidrocarbonetos (ENH), the state energy company.

Sasol, the South African petrochemicals and fuel company, has appointed investment banking advisers to sell its stakes in a power plant in Mozambique and a natural gas pipeline running from the southeast African future LNG exporter into South Africa.