LNG

UK major Shell said its subsidiary Shell Gas BV has signed an amended joint venture shareholder agreement in the Sultanate of Oman in the Arabian Peninsula for Oman LNG to extend the business beyond 2024.

Shell has taken a final investment decision to proceed with the Crux natural gas field joint venture offshore Western Australia to provide more feed gas for the “Prelude” floating LNG export plant.

TC Energy, the North American pipelines group, posted lower net income amid higher revenues as a dispute continued with the LNG Canada project over the Coastal GasLink feed-gas from the Montney Shale.

Royal Dutch Shell earnings were sunk by impairment charges as it posted a $21.68 billion annual lost compared with a profit of $15.84Bln in 2019, while LNG sales dropped 16 percent in the quarter and cash flow from LNG and gas sales plunged by 44 percent.

Norwegian energy company Equinor said it would write down the book value of its Tanzania LNG project in East Africa on the company’s balance sheet by US$982 million.

TC Energy Corp., the leading North American pipeline company supplying natural gas to the US and Mexico and feed-gas for projects such as LNG Canada, has announced the retirement of President and Chief Executive Russ Girling.

The CEO will step down from his posts and the board of the Calgary, Alberta-based company at the end of December.

His replacement has been named as François Poirier, currently Chief Operating Officer and President of TC Energy’s Power & Storage and Mexican divisions.

Girling will assist Poirier with the transition through February 28, 2021.

One of TC Energy’s main current projects is building the Coastal GasLink Pipeline from Dawson Creek to the Royal Dutch Shell-led LNG Canada project at Kitimat in British Columbia.

Among its many other ventures in North America, the Canadian company is a shareholder in the South Texas-Tuxpan pipeline with Sempra Energy’s IEnova. The pipeline crosses part of the Gulf of Mexico from Texas and was built at a cost of $2.5 billion for US exports to Mexico.

“On behalf of all Board members, I would like to thank Russ for his invaluable contributions to the company,” said Siim Vanaselja, TC Energy's Board Chairman.

“Over the last decade, he has led TC Energy through a period of unprecedented growth and transformation, including the development of its Liquids pipelines footprint, expansion of its Mexican natural gas pipelines business, the successful US$13 billion acquisition of Columbia Pipeline Group and advancement of North American LNG,” stated the Board Chairman.

Vanaselja praised Girling for creating “a culture of excellence” focused first on the safety of employees and those in the communities where the company operates.

“It has been a privilege and honour to lead TC Energy over the past 10 years and to be part of the extraordinary TC team,” said Girling.

“With the wisdom and guidance of the Board and the skills and tenacity of our dedicated employees, we have accomplished many things, delivered the energy critical to millions of people safely and reliably every day, and created significant shareholder value,” stated Girling.

“I am grateful for the opportunity and confident in how the Company is positioned to prosper as global demand for energy continues to grow and transition in the years ahead,” Girling concluded.

Vanaselja said he was confident in the choice of François Poirier as Girling’s successor having seen his leadership over six years at TC Energy.

“He has had exposure to all aspects of our business and consistently shown unwavering commitment to the company’s long-term success. His integrity, strategic thinking, commercial acumen and bottom-line focus will serve the Company well in the years ahead,” stated the Chairman. 

Energy Transfer, the US pipeline owner and shareholder with Royal Dutch Shell in the Lake Charles liquefied natural gas export project, reported solid fourth-quarter results as the LNG venture makes more progress.

The Dallas, Texas-based company said fourth-quarter net income attributable to partners amounted to $1.01 billion, primarily due to higher operating income.

It reported adjusted gross earnings of $2.81 billion, up 5 percent from the fourth quarter of 2018.

Energy Transfer said that among the quarterly highlights was the announcement in December 2019 with Shell US LNG of a comprehensive commercial tender package for engineering, procurement and construction contractors to submit final commercial bids.

“The proposed Lake Charles LNG liquefaction project being jointly developed by Energy Transfer and Shell on a 50-50 basis would modify Energy Transfer’s existing LNG import facility in Lake Charles, Louisiana to add LNG liquefaction capacity of 16.45 million tonnes per annum for export to global markets,” the company explained.

Energy Transfer also noted that in October 2019 that the Permian Express pipeline expansion went into full service.

The Lake Charles facility was the longest-serving US import terminal before the shale-gas boom and previously imported cargoes from Trinidad and Equatorial Guinea.

Under the transformation, Lake Charles will become an export facility and the successful EPC bidder is expected to be chosen after the second quarter of 2020.

The commercial tender focused on the technical scope of the project, specifically verifications of the engineering and design of the liquefaction facility.

Energy Transfer sees the Lake Charles project would capitalizes on “repurposing” the existing brownfield regas assets to achieve cost savings in the construction of the liquefaction facility.

It added that the project would also benefit from the unique strength of Energy Transfer as a leading natural gas pipeline operator with extensive connectivity to the Lake Charles facility.

Energy Transfer and Shell have signed a framework agreement designating Shell as the project leader and as construction manager and operator of Lake Charles LNG.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has authorized a deadline for the Lake Charles plant to be completed by mid-December 2025.

Shell gained its stake in the Lake Charles facility from its takeover in 2015 of BG Group of the UK.

Energy Transfer began in 1995 as a small intra-state natural gas pipeline operator and is now one of the largest energy infrastructure firms in the US.

Lake Charles would be Shell's largest liquefaction foothold in North America, rivalling its LNG Canada joint venture in the province of British Columbia.

Royal Dutch Shell reported a small decline in liquefied natural gas sales volumes to 35.4 million tonnes for the first half while earnings from the natural gas division dropped 25 percent on lower pricing amid the start-up of the Prelude FLNG facility offshore northwest Australia.

Royal Dutch Shell formally told Russian natural gas company Gazprom recently that it would not be taking part in the proposed Baltic LNG export project planned for near the port of Ust-Luga because of changes in the format.

Royal Dutch Shell posted a 10 percent increase in liquefied natural gas sales over the first nine months of 2018 and higher earnings and volumes in the third quarter as it confirmed the start of work on the LNG Canada export project in British Columbia.