LNG

Golar LNG Ltd shares surged over the weekend as the company entered a definitive agreements with Pan American Energy (PAE) for a 20-year deployment of one of its floating LNG production units in Argentina to tap the vast resources of the Vaca Muerta Shale.

Clean Energy Fuels Corp., the US producer of natural gas made from waste and a supplier of LNG fuel at over 600 filling stations around North America, has expanded its network near its base in Southern California.

Trelleborg Marine and Infrastructure, a unit of the Swedish maritime equipment-maker listed on the Nasdaq, said it was delivering docking and mooring equipment and ship-shore links to PetroVietnam Gas for the Thi Vai LNG import terminal project in southern Vietnam.

“It is our pleasure to have been selected as a strategic partner for such a landmark project and consequently play a key role in facilitating Vietnam's transition to LNG gas thermal power,” said Richard Hepworth, President of Trelleborg Marine and Infrastructure.

Trelleborg will also supply a selection of docking and mooring equipment.

This includes its Quick Release Hooks (QRH), the foundation for modern mooring systems at terminals.

“The Load Monitoring System, which measures and displays critical mooring line tensions and its Docking Aid System, which increases situational awareness, provide vital information such as distances, angles, and speeds to pilots and jetty operators to ensure the vessel is safely docked,” explained the company.

Ship-shore link

“At the same time, its Ship-Shore Link system supports LNG carrier loading and cargo discharge,” it added.

“Additionally, the terminal will utilize Trelleborg’s Environmental Monitoring System which provides weather, tide, current and wave information to the staff at the berth, at the operations center, or to the vessel,” said the company.

The Vietnamese terminal is located in the southern province of Ba Ria Vung Tau and when operational it will have capacity to import of one million tonnes per annum of LNG and up to 3 MTPA in the second phase of development.

“In order to safeguard the traffic of LNG carriers supplying international routes, it was vital that we upgraded the terminal with an integrated berthing system that successfully meets international LNG operation safety and quality specifications and standards,” explained PetroVietnam.

“We’ve no doubt Trelleborg is the ideal strategic partner to realize our ambition of facilitating LNG supply for Vietnam,” said the Vietnamese state energy company. 

Clean Energy Fuels Corp., the California-based producer and marketer of liquefied natural gas made from waste, said it was continuing to increase its customer base and has new production plans.

New Fortress Energy, the New York-based LNG-for-power company. has welcomed a court ruling in its favour in Sri Lanka allowing its floating import project and power joint venture to proceed.

Tellurian Inc., the owner of the Driftwood LNG export plant in Louisiana that has sealed supply deals with commodities trading firms Gunvor and Vitol, is transferring the listing of its own shares from the Nasdaq to the NYSE American, formerly known as the American Stock Exchange (AMEX) and now the third-tier exchange for US investors.

“Transferring our stock listing to the NYSE American allows us to leverage the exchange’s prestigious trading platform for our shareholders’ benefit,” said Tellurian Executive Chairman Charif Souki.

Tellurian said it expected its common stock to begin trading on the NYSE American on November 2, 2021 and will remain under the current ticker symbol “TELL”.

Trading of Tellurian shares on Nasdaq was expected to end at close of business on November 1, 2021.

The Houston, Texas-based company is moving towards the LNG plant construction phase after signing the Gunvor and Vitol LNG sales agreements in late May and early June 2021 for a combined 6 million tonnes per annum of cargoes from the Driftwood facility.

Each of the agreements is for a period of 10 years with the supply indexed to a combination of the Japan-Korea Marker for Asian spot cargoes and the European benchmark Dutch Title Transfer facility (TTF) price.

The engineering, procurement and construction contract has already been agreed with Bechtel Inc., the leading global builder of LNG export facilities.

The Driftwood plant with production capacity of around 27 MTPA and will be built on the west bank of the Calcasieu River, just south of Lake Charles.

Reasoning

In announcing the switch from Nasdaq to the NYSE American, Tellurian Chairman Souki said it comes at a time of “global natural gas shortages” and recent “history-making” prices

“This indicates the pressing need for additional liquefaction export capacity in the United States,” added Souki.

“Tellurian is poised to contribute to America’s status as an energy superpower, having achieved both regulatory permits and commercial success for Driftwood LNG phase one development,” he explained.

“We have turned our focus to putting together a world-class banking group and have started site preparation, in advance of giving our partner Bechtel notice to proceed with construction expected in the first quarter 2022,” stated Souki.

The Nasdaq and the NYSE American have different stock trading profiles.

Nasdaq (the National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations) holds a higher trading volume per day than any other stock exchange in the world.

Nasdaq joined forces with AMEX in 1998 to create the Nasdaq-Amex Market Group. However, the merger was short-lived and the AMEX regained its independence in 2004.

Now called the NYSE American, the exchange includes the second-largest options trading market, though is now mainly regarded as a platform for small-cap and mid-cap stocks and derivatives.

“We’re excited to welcome Tellurian as it transfers to NYSE American and joins our community of innovators and disruptors,” said John Tuttle, Vice Chairman and Chief Commercial Officer of the NYSE Group.

“We look forward to working with Tellurian as it supplies the world with a reliable, clean energy supply,” added Tuttle.

Tellurian Inc., developer of the Driftwood liquefied natural gas plant in Louisiana, has terminated stock and LNG purchase agreements with French major TotalEnergies after signing newer supply deals with global commodities firms Vitol Inc. and Gunvor Group.

Tellurian Inc., the US company planning the Driftwood LNG export project at Lake Charles in Louisiana, posted a first-quarter loss as it focused on debt reduction and said market fundamentals may favour the signing soon of supply agreements.

The Houston, Texas-based company said it continued to build its integrated global natural gas business and concentrated on paying down debt.

“Subsequent to the quarter end, Tellurian made a voluntary $17M debt repayment on April 23, 2021, and has now paid off all borrowing obligations,” said the company.

President and Chief Executive Octávio Simões said Tellurian now had a much stronger balance sheet and global customers continue to be “very interested” in the integrated, market-based LNG product offering.

The overall project plan for Tellurian now is for the Driftwood liquefaction plant to have first-phase production of 16 million tonnes per annum, rising to 27 MPTA with expansions.

“Additionally, we are looking forward to expanding our drilling program in 2021, having recently spud a new well in the prolific Haynesville Shale, that we expect to provide valuable revenue,” stated the CEO.

Tellurian produced 3.3 billion cubic feet of natural gas for the quarter in the Haynesville basin in north Louisiana to the end of March compared with 3.9 Bcf for the previous quarter.

Tellurian’s upstream assets include 9,704 net acres and interests in 72 producing wells.

The company said it ended the first quarter of 2021 with around $58.7M of cash and cash equivalents and generated $8.7M in revenues from natural gas sales.

Tellurian added that it still had a strong balance sheet consisting of approximately $270.3M in total assets.

Charif Souki, the Executive Chairman of Tellurian, said in a presentation that the use of the gas-fired power option was growing in Asia and his company hoped to start finalising commercial agreements based on the current “very strong gas market fundamentals” in Asia and Europe.

“There is now a tremendous amount of demand for natural gas on a global basis and it's now demonstrated by the very high prices both in Asia and Europe at $9 per MMBtu in Asia and $8 per MMBtu in Europe,” said Souki.

“You also have to consider that 85 percent of the world is growing their demand for energy at 4 percent a year, while the other 15 percent of the market, the United Sates and Europe, is flat,” he added.

Souki stated that Asian countries only had two choices for electricity, either nuclear power or natural gas.

“You can do nuclear but only if you've done it a long time ago and it’s extremely expensive,” added Souki.

“You can do wind but that will not satisfy all your needs, just to a certain extent,” he said.

Tellurian Inc., the developer of the US Driftwood LNG export plant proposed for Lake Charles in Louisiana, has resumed natural gas drilling in the Haynesville Shale basin in the north of the Gulf Coast state and could acquire more acreage.

April 16 (LNGJ) - New Fortress Energy said it completed the acquisition of Hygo Energy Transition, a 50-50 joint venture between Golar LNG Ltd and Stonepeak Infrastructure Partners, for 31.37 million shares of NFE and $580 million in cash. NFE simultaneously closed the acquisition of Golar LNG Partners, including all of the outstanding common units of the Nasdaq-listed firm.

   The Golar LNG Partners transaction was valued at around $1.9 billion on an enterprise basis and $25M in equity value. “The addition of the Hygo team, together with a great portfolio of world-class LNG ships and operators, enhances our efforts to bring more clean and affordable energy around the world,” said Wes Edens, Chairman and Chief Executive of New Fortress.