LNG

US Natural gas futures on the New York Mercantile Exchange hit a 14-year high of almost $9.400 per million British thermal units amid optimism on future demand for LNG exports as Venture Global took a final investment decision on its Plaquemines LNG project on the banks of Mississippi River in Louisiana.

Excelerate Energy, the US specialist and a market leader in floating storage and regasfication units (FSRUs), is preparing an initial public offering that will help test the appetite of investors for shares in the natural gas sector of the energy transition.

Excelerate has filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission to debut its shares and will be circulating a prospectus.

Excelerate intends to list its Class A common stock on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the ticker symbol “EE.”

Excelerate is based in The Woodlands in Houston in Texas and is part of a privately held US energy group founded by George Kaiser, owner of the Bank of Oklahoma.

The company has an operating fleet of 10 LNG FSRUs and is the pioneer of over a dozen import projects worldwide.

Execerate has also led the way in ship-to-ship LNG transfers as it started terminal operations in South America, the US, Europe and Asia.

“The number of shares to be offered and the price range for the proposed offering are subject to market conditions and have not yet been determined,” said Excelerate in a statement.

Three banks have been nominated to serve as joint lead book-running managers for the proposed offering, Barclays of the UK and US investment banks J.P. Morgan, and Morgan Stanley.

“The displacement of dirtier fossil fuels and the natural complement of LNG to a fast-growing renewables sector makes flexible floating LNG products, such as those provided by Excelerate, a part of the solution to decarbonization,” the company says.

In its latest terminal project Excelerate will help to stabilize the flow of supplies to Brazil through 2022 with a deal to deploy one of its existing FSRUs to the port of Salvador in the northeast state of Bahia.

Under the agreement with the South American country’s state-owned oil and gas company Petróleo Brasileiro Excelerate’s FSRU “Excelerate Sequoia” will supply up to 700 million cubic feet per day of regasified LNG.

ABB, the Swiss-Swedish power systems company, said its turbocharging unit had won a contract to equip parts of the new propulsion systems for six liquefied natural gas carrier newbuilds ordered by four companies.

ABB Turbocharging will deliver its A200-L turbocharger brand for the engines of the vessels.

The Zurich-based company said its low-pressure, dual-fuel engine offered environmental benefits at reduced capital cost.

Its A200-L turbochargers will be used on the engines being supplied by MAN Energy Solutions, the Denmark-based subsidiary of the German engine-maker.

The MAN 5G70ME-C10.5-GA engines will be installed in six 174,000 cubic metres capacity LNG carriers ordered by four different shipowners, Korea Line Corp. and PAN Ocean of South Korea, Knutsen OAS of Norway and JP Morgan, the US-based bank and investment firm.

The newbuilds will be the subject of long-term charter agreements with Royal Dutch Shell.

Offerings

ABB pointed out that the ME-GA is MAN’s first low-pressure, dual-fuel, two-stroke engine and sits alongside MAN’s well-established high-pressure M-Type Electronically Controlled-Gas Injection (ME-GI) engines.

The ME-GA, according to ABB and MAN, offers LNG carriers and other vessels an alternative way to cut greenhouse-gas emissions and minimize air pollution.

“Turbocharger performance is particularly important for dual-fuel engines. High turbocharging efficiency ensures that a high air-fuel ratio is maintained during high-load operations,” said ABB Turbocharging.

“The A100/A200-L series is ABB’s most advanced single-stage turbocharger technology for two-stroke engines, using the latest thermodynamic and aerodynamic expertise to pack the highest pressure ratios and efficiency currently available into a compact unit,” it added.

ABB explained that the small footprint also translated into a lower cost of ownership as spare parts are smaller and more economical and the turbocharger itself is easier to handle for servicing.

“When engine designers and makers want reliable high performance to support new engine technologies, they look to ABB turbochargers,” said Alexandros Karamitsos, Head of Global Sales Low-Speed Turbochargers, ABB.

“I am confident that shipowners will increasingly value our combination of technology leadership and global service coverage as incoming emission regulations encourage them to explore new fuels and engine concepts,” stated Karamitsos.