LNG

Shipments from Canada’s LNG Canada plant surpassed 1 million metric tons in April, marking a new monthly record, according to LSEG data, as the $40‑billion facility is ramping toward its full design capacity. All cargoes set sail to Asia, mainly South Korea.

Private capital from Asian exploration and production (E&P) investor are flocking to the North American market in search for LNG-linked assets. Deal flow is shaped by a ‘merger of equals’ as consolidation among Canada’s Montney shale producers accelerates, and Asian buyers seek to get their hands on shale and LNG-linked assets in the US.

Mitsubishi has disclosed it will buy Aethon Energy's assets in the Haynesville Shale – a move that positions the Japanese company to capitalise on burgeoning LNG exports from the US Gulf Coast. The transaction includes $5.2 billion in equity and $2.33 billion in assumed debt.

Japan’s new Prime Minister, Sanae Takaichi, has rebuked demands from US President Donald Trump for an outright ban of Russian LNG, saying such a move would be “difficult.” Mitsui and Mitsubishi own stakes in the Sakhalin-2 project and Russian LNG currently cover some 9% of Japan’s total imports.

The price of building gas-fired power plants in the US has risen to $2,200–$2,500 per kilowatt of capacity, raising doubt about projects economics and freeing up more feedgas for LNG exports. At the Energy Finance Conference in San Diego, panellists warned that building a modern combined-cycle gas power plant now requires hundreds of millions in upfront investment – notably $25 million deposits to secure key equipment.

Mitsubishi affiliate Diamond Gas has shipped the first LNG cargo from the massive LNG Canada terminal as of June 30th, local time. Japan is the “primary destination” for Mitsubishi’s offtake quota of 15%, or about 2.1 mtpa of the total LNG produced at the 14 mtpa liquefaction terminal in Kitimat, B.C.

Sakhalin-2, the Russian oil and LNG project that was handed over to local management two months ago, is now fully operational.

Japanese trading houses, Mitsui & Co and Mitsubishi Corp have cut the value of their stakes in Russia’s Sakhalin-2 LNG project by 217.7 bill yen ($1.66 bill).

The Tangguh LNG export plant in Indonesia in the Bintuni Bay region of West Papua province is progressing towards completion in mid-2022 of the third liquefaction amid the launch of carbon-capture plan in a gas field reservoir.

The LNG Canada project, led by Royal Dutch Shell and the largest private sector investment in Canada's history, has announced that construction is more than 50 percent completed.

“There’s a popular saying: ‘Believe you can and you’re halfway there’,” said the LNG Canada consortium in a statement.

Construction began three years ago at the British Columbia liquefaction and export plant site at Kitimat, 640 kilometres north of Vancouver.

Shell and its four partners, Mitsubishi Corp. of Japan, Malaysian energy company Petronas, Chinese major PetroChina and Korea Gas Corp., agreed in October 2018 to invest C$40 billion (US$30.2Bln) on the brownfield site that had been an energy products terminal before being acquired by Shell in 2011.

The initial two Trains will produce 14 million tonnes per annum of LNG. There is the possibility of expanding the facility to include up to four processing units in the future.

The engineering, procurement and construction contractors are JGC Corp of Japan and Fluor Corp. of the US.

Among the plant innovations are energy-efficient natural gas turbines and renewable electricity from local utility BC Hydro, meaning the plant will emit less than half the greenhouse-gas emissions of the average LNG facility currently in operation.

In addition to the construction costs of the plant, a US$5-billion pipeline of 670km is being built by Canada's TC Energy to bring the feed-gas from the Montney natural gas basin to the Kitimat liquefaction and export facility on the Pacific Coast.

LNG Canada said it believes it can “set the benchmark” for economically, environmentally and socially responsible LNG development.

Objectives

“Believing we can achieve our goals and objectives gave us a great start. And now, quite literally, we are halfway there, a little more, in fact,” added the statement.

“Three years after our joint venture participants reached a successful final investment decision, we’re moving swiftly towards commissioning and start-up, and to fulfilling our promise of delivering a world-class LNG facility in Kitimat, in the traditional territory of the Haisla Nation, benefitting British Columbians and Canadians for decades to come,” declared LNG Canada.

However, LNG Canada again mentioned an ongoing dispute with the pipeline construction company TC Energy.

“It hasn’t always been easy. The Covid-19 pandemic has created challenges for everyone, at home and abroad. And we remain very concerned about cost and schedules increases disclosed by TC Energy to complete its Coastal GasLink pipeline that will connect to our facility,” explained LNG Canada.

“But with support from First Nations, local communities and businesses, and working with all levels of government, LNG Canada has continued to reach major milestones, safely and on schedule,” it added.

The company said the plant site has seen an LNG tank roof-raising and the arrival of its main cryogenic heat exchanger and two pre-cooler units.

“This was our first opportunity to receive critical infrastructure at our new material offloading facility,” said the company.

LNG Canada said that to date its contractors and sub-contractors have awarded C$3.5Bln in contracts and procurement to business in BC.

Of this amount, over C$2.7Bln has been awarded to First Nations-owned businesses and local area businesses.

“Thousands of Canadians, most of them from BC, are presently working on the LNG Canada project,” the company noted.

In the coming weeks and months, activities will increase as more critical infrastructure arrives.

“The transformation of our site in Kitimat will accelerate as we move through the next stages of project completion and ever closer to shipping our first cargo of low-carbon, made-in-BC LNG,” the company declared.