LNG

Global Energy Storage (GES) of Singapore, a developer and operator of energy storage terminals, has announced a strategic partnership with a liquefied natural gas unit of Swedish shipping group Stena AB to identify and advance LNG logistics and storage solutions.

GES and Stena Power and LNG Solutions hope to combine their logistics expertise comprising floating storage and regasification units (FSRUs), onshore terminals and storage.

“Stena owns three LNG carriers which it can deploy as FSRUs or floating storage, potentially together with innovative jetty-less and/or offshore power solutions that do not require onshore facilities,” said a joint statement.

GES is planning to build a global network of first-class energy storage assets from its base in the Asian city state.

Part of its strategy is to invest around $250 million in brown and greenfield assets, initially in Europe and Asia, in the next five years.

“Our development efforts are focused on establishing expandable platforms located at key crossroads of energy flows,” said GES, started up in May 2021 by private equity firm Bluewater.

Leadership

GES is led by Peter Vucins and Eric Arnold, the team behind the growth of leading hydrocarbon storage company, Global Petro Storage (GPS).

The Singapore firm plans to concentrate on low-carbon commodities, energy transition fuels like LNG, as well as potentially renewable energy sources in the future.

GES said its strategic deal with Stena Power and LNG would enable developing economies and emerging markets to access LNG and clean power.

“This is an exciting and important partnership for GES. We regard LNG as an important transition fuel, especially in emerging markets where there is a strong demand for gas and power and a structural need to switch from coal to lower carbon solutions such as LNG,” said Peter Vucins, Chief Executive of GES.

“We are also interested in exploring opportunities with regard to blue hydrogen production where LNG is combined with carbon capture to make low carbon hydrogen,” added Vucins.

“The possibility to deploy existing LNG carriers with onshore terminal solutions means that we can move quickly to provide our customers with a full range of solutions,” stated the GES CEO.

Göran Hermansson, Chairman of Stena Power and LNG, said Stena’s offering was wide-ranging and provided operational and commercial advantages as well as increased safety.

“Our work is underpinned by our values of care, performance and innovation,” added Hermansson,

“By working with Global Energy Storage, we can share our wide-ranging, industry-specific knowledge to better achieve our mutual objective of delivering more sustainable energy infrastructure solutions to communities across the world,” declared the Stena unit’s Chairman.

Stena Power and LNG is already active in southeast Asian LNG through its involvement with an LNG import project in Vietnam.

Stena has been contracted to supply its jetty-less LNG transfer and regasification system for a terminal project in Bac Lieu province in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta being developed by Delta Offshore Energy and the regional authorities.

Delta Offshore Energy, the Singapore-based company, has awarded the world’s leading liquefaction plant builder Bechtel Inc. of the US the preliminary engineering contract for the power plant in Vietnam to be fuelled by imported LNG in Bac Lieu Province on the Mekong Delta.

March 22 (LNGJ) - GS Energy Corp., a subsidiary of the South Korean conglomerate, the GS Group, is planning to build and operate a power plant in Vietnam fired by regasified LNG. Vietnam is now the subject of over half a dozen power projects with gas-fired plants and backed by foreign investment. GS Energy said its project was in the south of Vietnam and would cost around 3.5 trillion South Korean won ($3 billion). The Korean company planned to sign a power purchase agreement with the state-run Vietnam Electricity Group to begin commercial production in 2027.

International commodities company Gunvor said it would enter an alliance to trade and ship liquefied natural gas to Vietnam, as part of a joint venture with Energy Capital Vietnam (ECV), a US-based development company.

Tokyo Gas, the Japanese utility and LNG importer, has joined with one of Japan’s main trading houses, Marubeni Corp., to develop a liquefied natural gas and power project in the northeast Vietnamese province of Quang Ninh.

Glenfarne Group, the owner of the Magnolia LNG export project in Louisiana, has made a request to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for five more years to complete the plant and associated facilities.

The regulators had previously approved construction of Magnolia LNG and related pipeline expansions in April 2016 under its previous owner, the Australian-listed company LNG Ltd that ceased trading amid financial difficulties.

That approval had required LNG Ltd to complete the project within five years, by April 2021.

The Magnolia plant is proposed for a 115-acre site near the Calcasieu Ship Channel. It is designed to produce 8.8 million tonnes per annum of LNG from four Trains.

“Unforeseeable developments in the global LNG market have affected Magnolia LNG’s ability to enter into long-term LNG offtake contracts,” privately-held Glenfarne told the FERC in requesting the extension.

“Magnolia and pipeline provider Kinder Morgan request a five-year extension of their authorizations, up to and including April 15, 2026, to place the Magnolia LNG Project facilities and Lake Charles Expansion Project facilities, respectively, into service,” Glenfarne added in its Magnolia project filing.

A final investment decision had not yet been taken on Magnolia as it sought to finalize a purchase agreement with a Vietnamese power and import venture in the Mekong Delta. That accord has now lapsed.

Glenfarne also acquired LNG Ltd.’s patented optimized single mixed refrigerant (OSMR) liquefaction technology from the Australian administrators.

Its purchase of Magnolia boosts the amount of US LNG export capacity Glenfarne has under development to 12 MTPA as it also owns Texas LNG Brownsville.

The Texas project received authorization from the FERC in November 2019 for the facility to be sited along the Brownsville Ship Channel.

Texas LNG seeks to supply Permian feed-gas as LNG to global customers along with two other rival projects being developed alongside.

These are the Rio Grande LNG project with five liquefaction Trains and over 26 MTPA of output and the smaller scale Annova LNG venture.

Rio Grande is own by NextDecade Corp and one of the main shareholders in Annova is Exelon Corp, the utility headquartered in Chicago.

All three Brownsville projects have pushed back their investment decisions and original construction and engineering timetables.

Glenfarne’s Texas LNG leadership still includes the project's co-founders, Chief Executive Vivek Chandra and Chief Operating Officer Langtry Meyer.

The sale to Glenfarne by the Australian administrators of LNG Ltd assets did not include the proposed Bear Head LNG project in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia with 12 MTPA of capacity.

Italian energy company Eni said an exploration well located in Block 114 of the Song Hong Basin offshore Vietnam has confirmed a significant natural gas accumulation, further expanding the potential of the field.

Vietnam is making progress on several liquefied natural gas import projects to support associated power plants and one such venture in Bac Lieu Province in the southern Mekong Delta has been highlighted in a half-yearly Vietnamese report on the economy.

The US export project, Magnolia LNG, and its owners LNG Ltd have been purchased by a London-listed energy infrastructure firm for US$2.25 million from Australian insolvency administrators appointed to oversee asset dispersals.

The Australian-listed developer of the US Magnolia export plant in Louisiana with an agreement to supply cargoes to Vietnam said a Singapore-based private company has withdrawn a planned takeover bid.