LNG

April 5 (LNGJ) - Enbridge Inc., the Canadian pipelines company, said its Texas Eastern Transmission subsidiary had received approvals from the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to commence service of a natural gas pipeline associated with its Venice extension LNG feed-gas project in Louisiana.

   The Venice extension was designed to supply feed gas to Venture Global LNG's Plaquemines export plant currently under construction on the banks of the Mississippi River south of New Orleans. The FERC said it granted Texas Eastern Transmission’s request to commence service on the 3-mile (4.8km), 36-inch Venice extension pipeline with capacity of around 1.3 billion cubic feet per day.

Sempra, the US utility company with power and natural gas services centred on California and Texas and LNG developments in the US and Mexico through the Sempra Infrastructure subsidiary, reported a surge in net income for the year and the fourth quarter.

Plaquemines LNG, the project being developed in Louisiana by Venture Global, has submitted supplemental information to enable the start of work in December on the latest phase of project development work related to connections with the Gator Express pipeline project to supply feed gas.

July 25 (LNGJ) - The Port of Brownsville in Texas, the only deep-water seaport directly on the US-Mexico border, said the Brazos Island Harbor (BIH) Channel Improvement Project would soon enter the construction phase to ease access for large ships. This will include the vessels berthing at the Rio Grande LNG export joint venture being developed by Houston-based NextDecade Corp. and partners.

   The Port said the improvement project’s contractor Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corp. had received a Notice to Proceed to perform the work on the Brownsville Ship Channel. “Great Lakes is set to commence Phase 1 of the project later this year,” said the Port. “The historic BIH project will deepen the 17-mile-long Brownsville Ship Channel from 42 to 52 feet, resulting in significant navigational safety improvements for commercial shipping in South Texas,” it added.

US energy infrastructure company ONEOK Inc. has signed a definitive merger agreement with Magellan Midstream Partners in a cash-and-stock transaction valued at around $18.8 billion to combine the two Oklahoma-based energy groups.

One of the world’s leading annual energy conferences, CERAWeek, was scheduled to begin in Houston on March 6 and will continue through March 10 with thousands of industry executives and politicians attending to consider the current turbulent global market.

Cheniere Energy, the largest US LNG exporter, posted 2022 revenues of $33.4 billion as it shipped 638 cargoes worldwide because of soaring demand, 13 percent more than last year, and outlined its plans for adding 20 million tonnes per annum more to the Sabine Pass plant in Louisiana and further expanding the Corpus Christi plant in Texas.

Tellurian Inc., the developer of the Driftwood LNG export project in Louisiana, has purchased more assets in the Haynesville Shale to boost feed gas resources when the plant comes on stream.

The Houston, Texas-based company entered into an agreement to purchase natural gas assets from the privately held companies EnSight IV Energy Partners LLC and EnSight Haynesville Partners LLC.

The purchase price was $125 million, subject to customary closing adjustments, and a contingent payment of $7.5M based on the price of natural gas and which may be payable in March 2023 under certain conditions.

Tellurian said it would fund the purchase with cash on hand and anticipates finalizing the acquisition of the EnSight assets in the third quarter of 2022.

Driftwood project owner Tellurian has existing gas field assets in the Haynesville Shale which extends through areas located in East Texas and Western Louisiana.

Tellurian produced 6.1 billion cubic feet of natural gas in the first quarter of 2022 compared with 4.9 Bcf for the previous quarter.

Its existing upstream assets in the Basin include 13,521 net acres and interests in 82 producing wells as of March 2022.

Export project

The Driftwood LNG export plant has permits to produce 27.6 million tonnes per annum of LNG and has 10-year offtake agreements with the likes of Shell North America and global commodities firms Vitol and Gunvor.

The Tellurian project involves constructing 20 mid-scale processing Trains, each with 1.38 MTPA of capacity, and built as five blocks of four Trains.

The Phase One development would include the first two of these blocks with 11 MTPA of output and two of three planned 235,000 cubic metres storage tanks and the first of three planned loading berths for LNG carriers.

On its new Haynesville assets, Tellurian said current net production was 45 million cubic feet of natural gas per day with the fields having 100 percent natural gas.

The purchase covers around 5,000 net acres in the core of the Haynesville Shale in DeSoto, Bossier, Caddo, and Webster Parishes and with 44 producing wells and five wells in progress.

With this deal Tellurian said that its Haynesville Shale acreage increased to 20,000 net acres, with 275 gross drilling locations and a net resource expected at 2 trillion cubic feet.

“We have been diligently growing our natural gas production and reserves in the Haynesville,” said John Howie, head of Tellurian’s natural gas fields.

“These assets provide Tellurian with both cash flow and a physical hedge for Driftwood LNG,” added Howie.

“The EnSight asset is a great fit with Tellurian’s existing position in the Haynesville Shale and allows us to step into an ongoing development program and bring on-line significant additional natural gas volumes in the fourth quarter of 2022,” he stated.

The US Department of Energy has issued two long-term orders authorizing more liquefied natural gas shipments from the existing liquefaction and export facilities owned by Cheniere Energy at Sabine Pass in Louisiana and Corpus Christi in Texas.

The two DoE orders allow Sabine Pass and Corpus Christi more feed gas to liquefy and export. Sabine Pass started operations in February 2016.

The Cheniere plants can now have the additional flexibility to export the equivalent of 0.72 billion cubic feet per day of natural gas as LNG to any country with which the US does not have a free trade agreement, including all of Europe.

When US LNG export plants were being developed for the first time in the lower 48 states the DoE was tasked with making sure there were export limits that protected US domestic natural gas needs as well.

“While US exporters are already exporting at or near their maximum capacity, with the issuances, every operating US LNG export project has approval from DoE to export its full capacity to any country where not prohibited by US law or policy,” said the DoE.

Top exporter

The statement noted that the US was now the top global exporter of LNG and exports are set to grow an additional 20 percent beyond current levels by the end of 2022 as additional capacity comes on stream.

In January 2022, the US supplied more than half of the LNG import needs of Europe.

“With the expected rise in LNG exports, the DoE is particularly focused on driving down methane emissions in the oil and gas sector both domestically and abroad,” added the statement.

It declared that US LNG remained an important component in global energy security.

“The DoE remains committed to finding ways to help our allies and trading partners with the energy supplies they need,” said the statement.

Cheniere announced in early February 2022 the completion of Train 6 at Sabine Pass in Cameron Parish in Louisiana, formally taking nameplate capacity to 27 million tonnes per annum.

The Corpus Christy facility has nameplate capacity of 13.5 MTPA from three Trains.

Cheniere recently initiated a lump sum, turnkey, engineering, procurement and construction contract with US LNG and energy engineering firm Bechtel Inc. for the Corpus Christi LNG plant expansion.

Bechtel has started early engineering, procurement and other site work for the Corpus Christi expansion, known by Cheniere as the Stage III Project.

The expansion will add up to seven mid-scale Trains, each with an expected liquefaction capacity of around 1.49 MTPA with a total production capacity of more than 10 MTPA.

Cheniere Energy said it had initiated a planned lump sum, turnkey, engineering, procurement and construction contract with US LNG and energy engineering firm Bechtel Inc. for the Corpus Christi LNG plant expansion.