LNG

The US Supreme Court has removed all obstacles to completing the long-delayed $6-billion Mountain Valley Pipeline to send natural gas from West Virginia to the state of Virginia and onwards to consumers further South and being developed by energy company Equitrans Midstream.

The Court granted Mountain Valley Pipeline LLC's request to lift legal blockages imposed by a lower court that had halted construction of a final short section of the 303-mile (488km) natural gas pipeline.

That final section to be completed is a 3.5-mile (5.6km) corridor through the federally owned Jefferson National Forest.

The gas pipeline being developed by Canonsburg, Pennsylvania-based Equitrans has been delayed by numerous court decisions since construction began in 2018.

Investors

Equitrans is the lead partner building the pipeline with several other companies including NextEra Energy, Consolidated Edison, AltaGas and RGC Resources.

The Court’s ruling was in response to a request from Equitrans to overturn an appeals court orders in early July 2023 to stop building in the Jefferson National Forest while that court considered legal complaints from environmental groups against the project.

Legal challenges to the pipeline continued even after West Virginia Democratic Senator Joe Manchin and other politicians wrote to encourage a positive decision on the Mountain Valle Pipeline into the Debt Ceiling Bill in Congress.

“The Supreme Court has spoken and this decision to let construction of the Mountain Valley Pipeline move forward again is the correct one,” Manchin said in a statement issued by his office.

“I am relieved that the highest court in the land has upheld the law Congress passed and the President signed,” added Manchin.

Final stage

Equitrans had argued that if it did not resume construction soon, it would have been unable to complete before winter weather arrives in November and halts work until the Spring.

The pipeline is designed to transport natural gas from the prolific Marcellus and Utica Shale Basins to the growing demand markets of the mid-Atlantic and southeast regions of the US where LNG export projects are expanding.

The 42-inch diameter pipeline that will link an existing transmission and storage system in Wetzel County, West Virginia, to the Transco Station 165 in Virginia.

The pipeline has capacity of 2 billion cubic feet per day and is fully subscribed under long-term contracts with a diverse group of shippers.

Sempra Infrastructure, the US owner of the Cameron LNG plant in Louisiana, and Port Arthur venture in Texas, said it received permits from the US Department of Energy to export US feed-gas from two LNG export plants being developed in Mexico.

Sempra said the permits applied to the Energía Costa Azul project and the Vista Pacifico venture, which war both located on the Mexican Pacific Coast.

“Advancing new infrastructure investments is critical to supporting the energy needs of America's allies,” said Justin Bird, Chief Executive of Sempra Infrastructure.

“These export projects are expected to support efforts across the Indo-Pacific region to diversify energy supplies while transitioning away from coal in power production,’ explained Bird.

“They are also expected to help strengthen US trading relationships, as well as create new jobs and boost the US and Mexico economies,” stated the CEO.

Under the permits granted by the DOE, the Vista Pacifico LNG is authorized to re-export up to 200 billion cubic feet per annum of LNG from US-sourced natural gas from the project under development at Topolobampo in the Mexican state of Sinaloa to any country with which the US does not have an Free Trade Agreement requiring national treatment for trade in natural gas.

Sempra described Vista Pacifico as a mid-scale facility with expected capacity of 3.5 MTPA.

The Vista Pacifico project is contingent upon completing the required commercial agreements, securing all necessary permits, obtaining financing and reaching a final investment decision.

The Sempra LNG unit of California-based utility Sempra Energy is working on the Vista Pacifico project in collaboration with Mexico's Federal Electricity Commission.

The Costa Azul Phase 1 currently under construction received non-FTA export authorization in 2019 and is scheduled to start commercial operations in 2025.

Second phase

The DoE also increased the authorized export volumes of the Costa Azul plant Phase 2 to re-export up to 636 billion cubic feet per annum of US-sourced LNG from project in Ensenada in the state of Baja California to non-FTA nations.

“Both permits are applicable for the period beginning on the date of first commercial re-export through December 2050,” added Sempra.

The proposed Costa Azul Phase 2 is expected to be comprised of two Trains and one LNG storage tank and produce approximately 12 MTPA.

CEO Bird thanked a string of US politicians for the DoE action, including Texas Republic senators Ted Cruz and John Cornyn, as well as the Democrat Senator for West Virginia Joe Manchin and the leadership of the Biden Administration.