LNG

Norway’s Equinor has received approval for the development of three more fields in the Norwegian Continental Shelf to supply Europe, including the fast-track Irpa natural gas field to supply several million UK households with gas for seven years in competition to LNG cargoes.

US energy company Sempra, operator of the Cameron LNG export plant in Louisiana, has signed an amended engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract with engineering firm Bechtel Energy for the Port Arthur LNG export project in Texas.

Bechtel and the Sempra unit, Sempra Infrastructure, have amended the EPC contract for the proposed Phase 1 liquefaction project in Jefferson County in Texas to a new price of approximately $10.5 billion.

“The execution of the final contract is a critical step in advancing Phase 1 of Port Arthur LNG toward a final investment decision,” said Justin Bird, Chief Executive of the Sempra Infrastructure unit.

“Based on robust customer interest, we know that Port Arthur LNG is highly attractive to the global market and we look forward to providing customers with access to secure, abundant and reliable US LNG,” added Bird.

Paul Marsden, President of Bechtel, said the firm was delighted to continue its partnership with Sempra after constructing the Cameron export plant at Hackberry.

“Alongside Sempra Infrastructure, Bechtel is ready to continue active construction in the Gulf Coast and bring more opportunities to the local region” added Marsden.

Contract scope

The Sempra EPC contract with Bechtel covers engineering, procurement, construction, commissioning, start-up, performance testing and operator training activities for Phase 1 of the new Texas plant.

The Port Arthur Phase 1 project has all its permits and is expected to include an initial two liquefaction Trains with a combined 13.5 million tonnes per annum of output.

Sempra said it was already working on a similarly-sized Port Arthur LNG Phase 2 project with “active marketing” taking place. This would take total production eventually to 27 MTPA.

California-based Sempra has signed a series of supply deals for Port Arthur Phase 1 involving four companies.

They are the Polish Oil & Gas Company, the German utility RWE Supply & Trading, UK chemicals company INEOS and US major ConocoPhillips.

The Sempra Infrastructure unit of Sempra also contains the other LNG assets like the Cameron plant and the Costa Azul export project in Mexico.

Earlier in 2022 Sempra agreed to sell a 10 percent interest in Sempra Infrastructure Partners to a subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), the wealth fund in the United Arab Emirates, for $1.78Bln in cash.

The San Diego-based utility business of Sempra includes San Diego Gas & Electric Co. and Southern California Gas Co. 

The France-based International Group of Liquefied Natural Gas Importers (GIIGNL) has issued its annual report with key export and import statistics and noted that 2022 would see a ‘‘paradigm shift” in the market with government and institutions getting involved after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

“Price volatility was exacerbated in February 2022 by the Russia-Ukraine conflict, and the current European energy crisis proves to be a stark reminder of LNG’s vital role in ensuring energy security and economic stability,” said Jean Abiteboul, GIIGNL President in his introduction to the report.

“Governments and public institutions are becoming increasingly involved in the LNG business, and we will monitor the consequences of this paradigm shift over the course of the coming year,” he added.

Global regasification capacity rose last year by 46 million tonnes per annum to reach 993 MTPA as four new large-scale terminals were brought in operation in Brazil, Croatia, Indonesia and Kuwait and five expansion programmes were completed, four of which are in China and one in Japan.

“At least six new markets have started or are scheduled to join the sector as importers in 2022, including Ghana, Hong Kong, El Salvador, the Philippines, Senegal and Vietnam,” said the report.

“In the meantime, LNG production has been struggling to keep pace with demand, which sent spot LNG prices upwards,” it added.

The GIIGLN constitutes a forum for exchange of information and experience among its 90 members and they handle more than 90 percent of LNG imports worldwide.

The membership the GIIGLN comes from 27 countries and the body also aims to share experiences to enhance safety, reliability, efficiency and sustainability of LNG import activities and in particular the operation of regasification terminals.

Keeping pace

“During 2021, LNG imports returned to robust growth, reaching 372.3 million tonnes, a 4.5 percent increase over 2020. Asia remained the main demand center for LNG, growing by 7.1 percent,” it said.

The report added that LNG production has been struggling to keep pace with demand, which sent spot LNG prices upwards.

“While 7.4 MTPA of new capacity came onstream, 5 MTPA of which in the United States, global LNG exports were affected by unscheduled maintenance and shortfalls in feed gas,” the report added.

“Increased output from the US, Egypt, Malaysia and Russia was partly offset by lower exports from Angola, Indonesia, Nigeria, Norway, Peru and Trinidad,” said the GIIGNL.

The report said that in 2021, two important final investment decisions were taken for the North Field East expansion project in Qatar, which will add 33 MTPA of liquefaction capacity from 2025, and Pluto LNG Train 2 in Australia for 5 MTPA.

“By 2025, more than 120 MTPA of new liquefaction capacity will progressively come online, which should partly relieve tensions in the LNG market,” stated the report.

With 68 new vessels delivered during 2021, the report confirmed that the LNG fleet reached 700 vessels, including 48 floating storage and regasification units (FSRUs) and 31 LNG bunkering vessels, representing a 9 percent increase in cargo capacity.

“Freight rates remained very strong throughout the year and the order book at year-end was remarkably high, with 196 units to be delivered by 2025,” said the report.

Höegh LNG Holdings, the leading floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) operator with 10 modern vessels, has appointment Erik Nyheim as new President and Chief Executive effective from mid-August.

JERA Co. Inc, Japan’s largest buyer of liquefied natural gas, has decided to resume operations in mid-April at the 47-year-old Sodegaura Thermal Power Station Unit 1, which uses regasified LNG and had been under a long-term planned shutdown process.

March 23 (LNGJ) - In LNG shipping activity there were fewer ships near land on March 23 than is normal with impending deliveries at terminals in the Atlantic Basin and the Mediterranean. One of the few was the 142,650 cubic metres capacity vessel “LNG Niger River” with a cargo from the Nigerian plant at Bonny Island and scheduled to be discharged on March 29 at the French Montoir-de-Bretagne terminal on the Atlantic coast, according to shipping data.

   The 177,000 cubic metres Cypriot-flagged vessel “Fedor Litke” was heading through the English Channel on March 23 and awaiting orders after lifting a cargo on March 16 from the Sabetta loading terminal at the Yamal plant in Arctic Russia.

Global liftings of liquefied natural gas cargoes rebounded by more than 10 percent this week while European benchmark LNG values rose along with the Japan-Korea Marker price for spot shipments heading for North Asia.

Equinor, the Norwegian oil and gas company, has concluded internal investigations following two fires last year at its facilities in Norway, one at the Hammerfest LNG export plant and a second at the Tjeldbergodden methanol facility, and has submitted the results to the nation’s Petroleum Safety Authority.

Cargo liftings fell slightly at export plants worldwide, though North Asia prices were still substantially higher than those in Europe and US Gulf Coast futures held up amid adequate future demand forecasts.

Jan 7 (LNGJ) - Chevron Corp., operator of the Gorgon LNG export plant on Barrow Island in Western Australia, said it was carrying out repairs on Train 1 because if welding issues after repairing Train 2 in 2020 because of the same problem. “Repairs to propane heat exchangers on Gorgon LNG Train 1 are underway,” said Chevron. The issues at Train 1 were discovered during scheduled inspections of the facility during maintenance.