LNG

Mexico-Pacific LNG has signed a third long-term Sales and Purchase Agreement with ExxonMobil’s Asian trading unit for an additional 1.2 million tonnes per annum of LNG from a liquefaction and export venture under development in the Northwest Mexican state of Sonora.

QatarEnergy and ExxonMobil have agreed to independently market LNG produced at their joint venture Golden Pass LNG plant in Sabine Pass in Texas with the start-up set for 2024.

“By leveraging their unique customer insights, QatarEnergy and ExxonMobil will better serve their downstream customers while meeting increased global demand,” the companies said.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission formally approved the transformation of the existing Golden Pass import terminal located on the Sabine-Neches Waterway in Texas into an export plant back in December 2016.

The Qatar-ExxonMobil project has advanced at a slow pace because of doubts several years ago over market demand issues that have now been resolved and work is well underway to construct three liquefaction Trains with around 16 million tonnes per annum of output.

While the first Train is still scheduled to come on stream in 2024, the second Train is expected to follow six-to-eight months later and Train 3 six-to-eight months after that.

ExxonMobil said it would market 30 percent of Golden Pass LNG volumes.

Mutual growth

“We are continuing to build on our decades-long relationship with QatarEnergy and collaborating on mutual growth opportunities that help deliver the lower-emissions energy our world needs,” said Peter Clarke, head of ExxonMobil’s LNG business.

“Independently marketing these Golden Pass volumes will generate increased value and flexibility across ExxonMobil’s growing global LNG portfolio,” Clarke explained.

ExxonMobil affiliate ExxonMobil LNG Asia Pacific (EMLAP) has been provided the exclusive rights to market 30 percent of Golden Pass LNG volumes.

QatarEnergy Trading will market the remaining 70 percent.

“Previously, ExxonMobil and QatarEnergy used the Ocean LNG joint venture to market Golden Pass volumes to customers,” noted ExxonMobil.

ExxonMobil and QatarEnergy continued their investments in Golden Pass throughout the pandemic-related down cycle, keeping the expansion project on schedule.

“The project will add new LNG capacity, create thousands of jobs and generate billions of dollars of economic growth for the region,” said ExxonMobil.

ExxonMobil explained that it was planning for lower-emissions LNG to play an increasingly important role in its advantaged portfolio.

“The company plans to nearly double its LNG supply by 2030 as low-cost, capital-efficient projects like the Golden Pass expansion come online,” said the US major.

Leading oil and gas and LNG executives as well as heads of European Union utilities had interesting observations to make on the first day of the four-day Gastech Conference and Exhibition held in the northern Italian city of Milan.

NextDecade Corp., the developer of the Rio Grande LNG export project on the Brownsville Ship Channel in Texas, has signed a 20-year sale and purchase agreement with ExxonMobil LNG Asia Pacific.

Under the SPA, the US major’s Asia unit will purchase 1 million metric tonnes per annum of LNG supplied from the first two Trains of the Rio Grande facility. The first Train expected to start commercial operations as early as 2026.

NextDecade mostly recently also signed a third supply agreement with a Chinese company since the start of 2022.

The Houston, Texas-based company signed a 20-year SPA with China Gas Hongda Energy Trading Co., a wholly-owned subsidiary of China Gas Holdings. This deal was also for 1 MTPA of LNG indexed to Henry Hub and delivered on a free-on-board (FOB) basis.

NextDecade in April 2022 signed a 20-year SPA with the Singapore trading arm of ENN Group of China and another with China’s Guangdong Energy Group Natural Gas.

“The signing of this long-term SPA with ExxonMobil, a global leader in the energy industry, represents another significant milestone for RGLNG and signifies the beginning of a mutually beneficial relationship,” said Matt Schatzman, NextDecade’s Chairman and Chief Executive.

Strategy

“This agreement highlights the success of NextDecade’s strategy to provide customers with low carbon-intensive LNG to help them meet their carbon reduction goals, while providing them access to secure energy supply,” added Schatzman.

The US company has ultimate plans and permits to produce up to 27 MTPA of LNG from five liquefaction Trains at the Rio Grande facility.

“LNG will play an increasingly important role in helping society reduce emissions during the energy transition,” said Peter Clarke, Senior Vice President of LNG for the ExxonMobil Upstream Company.

“We look forward to working with NextDecade to continue growing ExxonMobil’s LNG portfolio and delivering the lower-emissions energy the world needs,” added Clarke.

NextDecade has said that based on current expected demand for LNG and assuming the achievement of further LNG contracting and financing, the company anticipated making a positive final investment decision on up to three Trains in the second half of 2022, with FIDs of its remaining Trains to follow thereafter.

ExxonMobil Corp. has signed up with US plants developer Venture Global for two long-term Sales and Purchase Agreements amounting to volumes of 2 million tonnes per annum from Louisiana LNG export plants.

Venture Global, based in Arlington, Virginia said ExxonMobil LNG Asia Pacific (EMLAP), which has an LNG trading licence in Singapore, will receive 1 MTPA from the Plaquemines export plant being developed on the banks of the Mississippi River.

A further 1 MTPA will be lifted for the ExxonMobil unit from the CP2 LNG project being designed and constructed alongside the existing Calcasieu Pass plant in Cameron Parish where several mid-scale Trains are already operating.

“This is the second supply agreement for CP2, which is expected to commence construction in 2023,” said Venture Global.

This refers to a previous deal with New Fortress Energy, headquartered in New York, for 1 MTPA of LNG from the future CP2 plant. NFE is also taking 1 MTPA of LNG from Venture Global’s Plaquemines facility and both deals are for free-on-board cargoes for a period of 20 years.

Venture Global said that both of its new export facilities will replicate the same design seen in operation at Calcasieu Pass, where speed of execution resulted in the production of first LNG only 29 months after the final investment decision.

Fourth plant

The company is also developing a fourth plant on the Mississippi River called Delta LNG and would take its overall output to 60 MTPA.

“Venture Global is deeply honored that ExxonMobil has chosen to collaborate with our company across both of our next projects, Plaquemines and CP2,” said Miichael Sabel, Chief Executive of Venture Global LNG.

“As a global LNG leader, ExxonMobil’s support for Venture Global’s innovation and engineering execution is a defining moment for our combined teams and the wider LNG market,” Sabel declared.

ExxonMobil is developing its own LNG export plant along the Gulf Coast at Texas in partnership with QatarEnergy on the Sabine-Neches Waterway.

However, the Qatar-ExxonMobil project has advanced at a slow pace because of doubts several years ago over market demand issues that have now been resolved and work has gathered pace to construct three liquefaction Trains with around 16 million tonnes per annum of output.

ExxonMobil, based in Irving, Texas, is also a main partner of QatarEnergy in many of its existing Trains at the huge Ras Laffan complex in Qatar in the Arabian Gulf.

Commenting on the SPAs with Venture Global senior Vice President of LNG for the ExxonMobil Upstream Co., Peter Clarke, said LNG has an important role to play in helping lower emissions in the industrial sector.

“We look forward to working with Venture Global as we continue to grow ExxonMobil’s LNG portfolio and progress our plans to reliably deliver natural gas from the US Gulf Coast to global markets,” added Clarke.

Italian energy company Eni and US major ExxonMobil said shareholders in the Area 4 licence offshore Mozambique have secured sufficient liquefied natural gas offtake commitments to enable them to move forward to schedule a final investment decision in 2019.