LNG

Kinder Morgan Inc. (KMI), the leading US pipeline feed-gas company for liquefied natural gas plants and a key energy infrastructure operator and developer, reported an almost 10 percent rise in first-quarter net income with contributions from all business segments while forecasting soaring LNG and pipeline gas exports through 2030.

Venture Global LNG Inc., the US liquefied natural gas developer involved in a dispute with many customers regarding the non-delivery of post-commissioning cargoes from the Calcasieu Pass project in Louisiana, plans to acquire nine LNG carriers to expand its worldwide sales especially of spot shipments.

Chart Industries, the US LNG equipment-maker and industrial gases and clean energy company, reported a record backlog for an eighth consecutive quarter, surpassing $2 billion for the first time in its history.

US liquefied natural gas export projects have to file with regulators very detailed responses to possible emergency scenarios in or around their terminals including offshore incidents with LNG carriers or serious accidents at the production plant.

US LNG exporter Venture Global has received permission from regulators to commission liquefaction blocks five and six at the Calcasieu Pass LNG export plant in Louisiana.

The Calcasieu Pass plant in Cameron Parish in Louisiana, south of the city of Lake Charles, shipped its first cargo at the start of March 2022.

Calcasieu Pass comprises 18 small-scale modular liquefaction Trains each with 0.626 million tonnes per annum of capacity and configured in 9 blocks for total nameplate output of 11.26 MTPA.

Using modular Trains that were built in Italy and shipped to Calcasieu Pass to be installed, Venture Global was able to cut construction costs and to bring forward the start-up schedules.

After the latest FERC authorisation for blocks five and six, the project will be two-thirds complete.

Success

“Given the success of (previous) commissioning operations, Calcasieu Pass respectfully requests authorization to place Blocks 5-6 in service,” said the request from Venture Global which was granted by FERC.

In total, Venture Global has about 70 MTPA of LNG export capacity under construction or development in Louisiana.

The Arlington, Virginia-based company’s three other projects are each expected to have nameplate capacity of around 20 MTPA.

Two of the other plants are called Plaquemines and Delta LNG and are on the banks of the Mississippi River south of New Orleans.

The fourth project, called CP2 LNG, will be built on a 540-acre site in Cameron Parish, adjacent to the existing Calcasieu Pass facility.

Venture Global has host of long-term agreements with customers for its various projects.

The list includes Shell, BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil, Italy's Edison, Portugal's Galp, Spain's Repsol, Polish Oil and Gas Company, Chinese major Sinopec, German utility EnBW and Malysia's Petronas.

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.

Chart Industries, the US maker of LNG and industrial gases equipment for the energy transition, reported record fourth-quarter and annual orders and is poised to deliver for three major LNG export projects likely to proceed in 2022 on the US Gulf Coast.

Chart Industries, the US manufacturer of LNG liquefaction, storage and other cryogenic equipment serving the energy and industrial gas markets, has signed an accord with Canada-headquartered Ionada to pursue carbon-capture and sequestration (CCS) projects for the maritime and power sectors.

Ionada is a developer of exhaust-gas cleaning systems that reduce emissions in shipping and power plants. The accord with Chart will bring together Ionada’s technology and Chart’s expertise in carbon-dioxide storage and handling systems.

Atlanta, Georgia-based Chart is also a market leader in supplying US Gulf Coast large-scale LNG export projects, including Venture Global’s Plaquemines plant on the banks of the Mississippi River, Cheniere Energy’s Corpus Christi expansion in Texas and Tellurian’s Driftwood venture in Louisiana.

The company is also developing New York-based New Fortress Energy’s FastLNG production plans, while demand for Chart’s LNG vehicle tanks, fuelling stations and trailers has increased worldwide.

In moving into the CCS sector Chart and Ionada envisage making use of the US company’s onboard storage capabilities via its CO2 ISO containers or in engineered built-for-purpose type-C tanks and with the CO2 then offloaded at ports.

“Once offloaded, the CO2 can either be permanently stored in geological formations or put to beneficial use in CO2-consuming industries, such as the agricultural, industrial, energy or food and beverage sectors,” the companies explained.

“We are thrilled to partner with Ionada to help improve the carbon footprint of the shipping industry,” said Chart Chief Executive Jill Evanko.

“The solutions being developed with Ionada will greatly benefit the maritime sector and help ship owners reach greenhouse-gas emission targets set forth by the International Maritime Organization,” added Evanko.

“This is also a great example of how our equipment is agnostic to the process itself - it can work with various process solutions to offer the most flexibility to our end customers,” stated the Chart CEO.

The IMO aims to reduce carbon intensity in international shipping by 40 percent by 2030, and to cut the total annual GHG emissions from international shipping by at least 50 percent by 2050 compared to 2008.

With cryogenic storage tank manufacturing sites all around the world, including the US, China, the Czech Republic, Italy and India, Chart said it was well positioned to supply CO2 storage and handling solutions to shipowners globally.

Venture Global, the US developer of three LNG export plants in Louisiana, has spoken at the Gastech Virtual Summit in favour of LNG in the energy transition as a counter to huge new coal power-generation plans in China and the power cuts in the US state of California, he referred to as “green-outs”.

Venture Global, the US liquefied natural gas developer pursuing three projects in the state of Louisiana, has now raised a total of $2.8 billion in financing and much more will be needed as it presses ahead with plans to produce 56 million tonnes per annum of LNG for export.