LNG

Glenfarne Group, the US developer and operator of global energy and infrastructure assets and of the Texas LNG Brownsville and Magnolia LNG projects in Texas and Louisiana, has overhauled the business and formed Glenfarne Energy Transition (GET) for its energy assets while giving estimates for LNG final investment decisions.

Lake Charles LNG, the export project being pursued by pipeline and midstream company Energy Transfer and Royal Dutch Shell, has filed with regulators for an extension to mid-December 2025 for the venture to be completed and a final decision to go-ahead is expected by year-end.

President Donald Trump formally opened the Cameron liquefied natural gas export plant at Hackberry in Louisiana and said the nation was heading for a great energy future with more security as he contrasted the hostile policies of Iran and Venezuela with that of America, which planned to provide power around the world from LNG.

“In Venezuela and Iran, we are now holding dangerous regimes accountable, denying them oil revenue to fund their corruption, oppression and terror,” said the President.

At the same time, he said LNG from the Cameron plant would soon be moving through the Gulf of Mexico and the Panama Canal to Asia to illuminate cities.

“The energy revolution you’re leading is an incredible story that could only be written right here,” he told the Cameron construction workforce and plant personnel numbering  several thousand who had gathered to hear his speech lasting just over 55 minutes.

“As we embrace the potential of our God-given abundance, we are not only strengthening our national security but reducing our dependence on foreign sources of energy,” he said.

Trump added that with increased US oil and gas production and LNG the nation had dramatically increased its power to confront adversaries, support its friends and fight for its interests.

“For example, American allies all around the world, in Poland and Lithuania, are now using American natural gas to reduce their dependence on countries who use energy as a weapon of coercion,” he said.

The Cameron plant, owned by California-based utility Sempra Energy, completed all major construction activities for Train 1 and has just started production of LNG, the final step before cargoes are exported.

The first phase of the Cameron project includes building the first three liquefaction Trains that will enable the export of around 12 million tonnes per annum of LNG, or about 1.7 billion cubic feet per day of natural gas.

Here are the other main extracts from President Trump’s speech, referring to France, the climate-change debate, radical Democrats in Congress and US energy economics.

In his speech, Trump devoted some time mocking opposition radical Democrats in the US Congress who want the nation to rely on windpower.

“Over 100 Democrat members of Congress have sponsored that ‘Green New Deal’, that radical plan to put you out of work,” Trump told the Cameron workers.

“They want to stop oil, to stop coal. They want to stop nuclear. On my watch we will never allow radical activists, special interests or out-of-control bureaucrats to wreck our economy, eliminate our jobs or destroy your future,” stated the President.

“Under the ‘Green New Deal’, they don’t like clean natural gas. They don’t like anything. They don’t know what they like. They certainly like wind, even though it kills all the birds,” he said.

“Do you want to see a bird cemetery? Go under a (power) windmill and you’ll see the saddest sight,” added Trump.

“You know, in California you go to jail for five years if you kill a Bald Eagle. You go under a windmill and you see them all over the place. It’s not a good situation,” he added.

“That’s what (the Green New Deal) is counting on, wind,” he added. “When the wind doesn’t blow you don’t watch television that night,” he said.

“We know that American energy workers like the ones here at Cameron LNG are the foundation of American strength. That’s what you are,” said the President.

“By unleashing American oil, natural gas and clean coal you are helping to fuel America’s historic economic boom,” he added.

“We have the greatest economy in the history of our country. Last month we created another 263,000 jobs,’ he said.

“Since the election we have created 6 million jobs, including 57,000 new oil and gas pipeline construction jobs,” declared Trump.

“In 2018 alone, America added 150,000 new energy jobs,” he said.

“The previous Administration tried to put America’s vast energy resources under lock and key. ‘We don’t want energy,’ they said. I don’t know what they were thinking. And they tried to put energy producers out of business,” said Trump.

The President was then widely cheered when he declared: “I withdrew the United States from the terrible, very expensive, one-sided Paris Climate Accord.

“You just take a look at Paris. The (French) President’s a friend of mine. Sometimes I’ll call him up. How are you doing over there? Not so good? The yellow vests! You know that was all to do with the Accord. Because they were charging people tremendous amounts of money (for diesel and gasoline) and sending it all over the world to countries that they’d never heard of. People get tired of it,” said Trump.

“I saved $1 trillion through not going with the Paris Accord,” stated the President. “I thought I would take a lot of heat for doing that. But instead we’ve been praised,” he added.

“The Paris Accord was an agreement that would have shut down clean energy production in America while allowing top foreign polluters to do whatever the hell they want,” he said.

“It was a restriction on America. It was almost made to hold us back,” he said.

“No longer will we allow other countries to tie America’s hands and take America’s jobs and hurt American energy,” he stated.

“This quarter, America produced record amounts of oil and natural gas. Since the election private companies have invested half a trillion dollars in the US energy industry,” added Trump.

“And it looks as if it’s going substantially up from there, including in this great state where there are many tremendous projects,” he said.

“The US has now been a net exporter of natural gas for two straight years and energy imports are at their lowest level for 60 years,” he added.

“In 2018, American energy exports alone brought down our trade deficit by $215 billion,” he added.

“We are pursuing a vision not just of energy independence but of American energy dominance,” stated the President.

“By next year America’s LNG capacity will more than double. What does it really mean? It means jobs, jobs, jobs. That’s what it means,” he said.

“In the past, politicians and pundits had said America was running out of oil and natural gas. They were saying it 10 years ago, five years ago. I was hearing it all the time. They said the United States would never again be an energy power house,” he said.

“They said Americans would have to learn to get by with much, much, much less,” added the President. "But you proved them wrong,” he said. “You silenced the critics and shattered the predictions.

“You are powering our cities, uplifting our nation and you are lighting up the world. You are building a better future for our families and our children and for every patriot, and you are true patriots,” said Trump.

“You’re making America safer, prouder and stronger than ever before. I just want to say it’s been a great honor to be with you today. It’s been a special day. This is your first day of many, many days of producing something that is very special,” he said.

“It’s a tremendous achievement. I want to congratulate everybody involved in the project. And most importantly I want to congratulate the state of Louisiana and all the work we’ve done together with the federal government and I want to congratulate the workers. It doesn’t work without the workers,” concluded the President.

The US Cameron liquefied natural gas export plant at Hackberry in Louisiana said it had begun producing LNG and would make its first shipment in the coming weeks as it prepared to welcome President Donald Trump for a tour of the facility.

Venture Global, the US LNG project developer with two export plants proposed for Louisiana, has filed with regulators to permit its construction of a third plant in the Gulf Coast state.

The Arlington, Virginia-based company filed with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for a venture called Delta LNG and its associated Delta Express pipeline.

The company’s first and most advanced plant is at Calcasieu Pass in Louisiana with current nameplate export volumes of 12 million tonnes per annum and is expected to come on stream in 2022, along with associated facilities, including the TransCameron Pipeline.

Venture Global, owned by former investment banker Michael Sabel and lawyer Robert Pender who act as joint chief executives, is also constructing a second plant at Plaquemines near river mile-marker 55 on the west side of the Mississippi River, 30 miles south of New Orleans.

The Mississippi River project has current output targets of 20 MTPA of LNG and was set to include small-scale liquefaction Trains, four LNG storage tanks and three marine loading berths.

The Delta LNG plant is also proposed for Plaquemines Parish and would have peak capacity to process 24 MTPA.

The filing made on April 17 also requested the start of a permit process for a 287-mile pipeline called Delta Express between Perryville in Louisiana, crossing into the neighbouring state of Mississippi, and then back into Louisiana to connect to the LNG plant.

According to a preliminary schedule the third Venture Global project could see construction start in late 2021 and the plant shipping its first cargo by November 2024.

Venture Global had in March 2019 that it planned to expand the scope of its LNG development business on the US Gulf Coast to 60 MTPA of production based on customer demand, almost doubling current plans for 32 MTPA of output.

Co-CEOs Pender and Sabel said that having fully contracted Calcasieu Pass and anticipating completion of Plaquemines LNG an expansion was being studied to meet additional customer demand.

“We believe our model of mid-scale modular liquefaction is the future of low-cost LNG production,” they said.

Venture Global noted that the Calcasieu Pass project with its planned 10 MTPA of output had received all federal authorizations.

The project’s engineering contractor, Kiewit Energy of Omaha, Nebraska, is now carrying out site preparation in advance of construction.

The Calcasieu Pass plant has signed binding 20-year sale and purchase agreements with companies such as Royal Dutch Shell, BP of the UK, Italian utility Edison, Portugal’s Galp Energia, Repsol of Spain and Poland’s national oil and gas company.

The Plaquemines project is expected to receive its final regulatory authorization in August and commence construction later in 2019.

Tellurian Inc. said it welcomed the issuing of the order from the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission granting authorization for its Driftwood LNG export project to go ahead at Lake Charles in Louisiana.

The US is increasing its domestic natural gas demand for gas-fired power plants as the number of facilities has now overtaken coal-fired plants and the power industry competes with liquefied natural gas export projects for abundant feed-gas resources.

French energy major Total said at the LNG2019 conference in Shanghai that it had signed a series of agreements to strengthen its foothold on the US Gulf Coast with equity stakes and additional volumes.

Total said it signed its deals with Tellurian Inc., a company in which it already has shares and the developer of the Driftwood LNG project in Louisiana.

The accords signed were a Heads of Agreement committing Total to invest in the development company Driftwood Holdings and another to take its supply from the venture to 2.5 million tonnes per annum of LNG.

Total said it would make an additional equity investment in the Driftwood LNG joint venture and purchase more offtake.

The final environmental impact statement was issued by the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in January 2019 to develop the liquefaction plant to produce around 27.6 million tonnes per annum of LNG.

Tellurian and Total said they planned a sales and purchase agreement (SPA) for a further 1.5 MTPA of LNG from Tellurian Marketing’s offtake volumes from the Driftwood venture.

The sales agreement will be for the purchase of free-on-board (FOB) whereby Total supplies the shipping for a minimum term of 15 years and at a price based on the Platts Japan Korea Marker (JKM).

Total’s equity agreement gives the French company an additional 20 million shares of Tellurian common stock for an amount of $200 million, adding its previous investment.

The agreements are subject to the relevant regulatory approvals and to the final investment decision of the Driftwood project.

“These agreements increase our commitment to Driftwood LNG, a highly cost-competitive project that benefits from the low gas production costs and prices in the US,” said Patrick Pouyanne Chairman and Chief Executive of Total.

“In line with our strategy to become a major LNG portfolio player, this transaction will add 2.5 MTPA of competitive US LNG to Total’s portfolio and strengthen our positions in the US,” added Pouyanne.

Total has been a shareholder in Nasdaq-listed Tellurian since 2017, after the Group acquired 46 million shares for an amount of $207M.

Tellurian said it was expecting to have about six partners-customers when it takes its final investment decision for the first phase of the joint venture near Lake Charles that will cost a total of $30 billion.

The company is expected to take its final investment decision by mid-2019 and would progress to producing the first LNG in 2023 and complete the project in 2026.

Tellurian Inc., developer of the Driftwood LNG export project in Louisiana, is expecting to have about six customer-partners when it takes its final investment decision for the first phase of the joint venture near Lake Charles that will cost a total of $30 billion.

Arup Group, the UK-based global engineering company, has been appointed by a US LNG export project planned for Cameron Parish to advise on the installation of the region’s first modular LNG storage tanks.

The Arup energy unit has been asked by Commonwealth LNG to provide specialist engineering services for the development of the storage tanks at its project site on the West Bank of the Calcasieu Ship Channel at the entrance to the Gulf of Mexico.

The innovative design of the modular tanks, an original concept by Arup, allows them to be constructed offsite at a dedicated fabrication yard in parallel with foundation construction at the site itself.

Arup said that this approach significantly reduces onsite labour and shortens completion time by up to one year.

“These benefits result in capital cost savings and overall project risk reduction,” said the engineering firm.

Commonwealth LNG has a schedule to construct its facility in Cameron Parish for exports to begin by 2024.

The plant will have a total liquefaction capacity of 8.4 million tonnes per annum and LNG storage capacity volumes of 240,000 cubic metres.

Arup is also supporting Commonwealth’s permit process with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission by providing structural, mechanical and naval architecture engineering services in relation to the design of the modular storage tanks.

Once the FERC approves the latest Louisiana venture for LNG exports construction is expected to start in 2021.

“This is a great step for the LNG industry and could lead the way for new mid-scale storage options,” said Brian Raine, head of Arup’s Energy Structures unit.

“The innovative design brings great benefits and we look forward to working with Commonwealth throughout the project to make those benefits a reality,” added Raine.

Rob Powers, Senior Vice President for engineering at Commonwealth LNG, said he was pleased to have Arup on his team.

“Their broad experience, depth of resources, technical creativity and responsiveness to our requests have made them valued partners on our project,” stated Powers.