LNG

Dominion Energy has closed the $4.3 billion sale of its Salt Lake City, Utah-based natural gas utility Questar Gas Company and its gas supply company Wexpro to North American pipelines operator Enbridge Inc. of Canada.

The US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has announced a special meeting on May 13 to consider its long-awaited electricity transmission reform proposals that will affect energy markets across America.

The reforms have been considered since severe storms in states from North Dakota to Georgia struck in the Christmas of 2022. This followed an earlier major winter storm in Texas that caused power outages in the Southeast.

The Transmission Reform meeting begins at 11am on May 13 in the Commission Meeting Room at the FERC’s Washington, D.C. headquarters.

FERC has proposed a set of regulatory reforms to speed a much-needed expansion of the nation’s network of long-distance electric transmission lines.

FERC’s final rules, which are now set to be debated, are expected to substantially update the framework under which transmission lines are planned and paid for, and pave the way for the growth of clean energy.

Analysts noted that the FERC’s reforms come at a time when the future of the electric grid has become the focus of partisan debate and legal challenges to FERC’s proposed rules are expected.

Power demand surge

Electricity demand in the United States is expected to grow dramatically over coming decades, by some estimates tripling before 2050.

This is because under current US plans, from cars to home heating, there will be a move to the use of more electric power.

Accompanying this demand will be a fundamental shift in how electricity is produced, with renewable energy becoming an ever-larger portion of the generation mix.

Both of these trends to more and cleaner power will require simultaneous expansion of the network of long-distance transmission lines to reliably deliver power to consumers.

Yet despite clear need, relatively few miles of new transmission have been built in recent years.

At the core of the challenge are outdated frameworks for how the grid is planned and paid for.

In addition, the future of the electric grid has become the focus of political debate, turning what was once primarily an engineering challenge into a political one.

“One factor at play here is that the utility industry wants to make sure that the system is developed for its own needs, which don’t necessarily align with broader decarbonization goals or the interests of consumers in having low-cost power,” said one study filed with FERC.

Chart Industries Inc., the US equipment-maker for the liquefied natural gas and other clean energy and industrial gases markets, said global end-market demand continued to be strong in 2024.

Tellurian Inc., the developer of the Driftwood liquefied natural gas export plant near Lake Charles in Louisiana, has signed an agreement for the supply of eight main refrigerant compression packages for the Phase One development of the Driftwood project.

Venture Global, the US liquefied natural gas export projects developer in the state of Louisiana, said long-term expansion would increase production from 70 million tonnes per annum to more than 100 MTPA of nameplate capacity.

Japan’s biggest liquefied natural gas importer, JERA Co. Inc., has named James Tinsley as Chief Commercial Officer of the JERA Americas subsidiary based in Houston in Texas as the Japanese company also hinted at US expansion moves.

The $1.5-billion US Driftwood Pipeline project comprising two feed-gas lines for the liquefied natural gas export plant in Louisiana has been formally approved by regulators.

Tellurian, the Driftwood project developer, said in a statement that the pipelines, known as Line 200 and Line 300, would be constructed in Beauregard Parish and Calcasieu Parish in the Gulf Coast state.

The Houston, Texas-based company, said the pipelines would be capable of delivering up to 5.5 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day.

Tellurian said the pipelines would have “virtually no emissions” due to the implementation of electric-powered Integrated Compressor Line (ICL) technology from US energy technology and services company Baker Hughes.

The company said the permits were awarded by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on April 21.

Bechtel contract

Leading US LNG engineering company Bechtel Energy has already been given limited notice to proceed with construction of Phase One of the Driftwood liquefaction plant.

The Tellurian project involves constructing 20 mid-scale processing Trains, each with 1.38 MTPA of capacity and built as five blocks of four Trains.

The Phase One development would include the first two of these blocks with 11 MTPA of output and two of three planned 235,000 cubic metres storage tanks and the first of three planned loading berths for LNG carriers.

“Tellurian thanks the FERC for their thorough and collaborative review of our Driftwood Pipeline Project and we look forward to delivering natural gas in a cleaner and highly reliable way to Southwest Louisiana,” said Tellurian President and Chief Executive Octávio Simões.

Earlier in April, Tellurian signed an accord to sell the site of the Driftwood plant near Lake Charles to New York-based institutional investors.

Tellurian said that the sale and lease back deal had been the subject of a binding letter of intent for the 800 acres of land owned by Tellurian’s subsidiary, Driftwood LNG LLC.

Master lease

The agreement will see Tellurian receiving $1 billion for the land and a lease.

“It will consist of the sale by Driftwood LNG and purchase by a special purpose entity to be formed by the investor of Driftwood LNG’s interests in the property for $1.0Bln pursuant to a purchase and sale agreement,” said Tellurian.

On the closing of the transaction a 40-year lease of the property from the purchaser to Driftwood LNG will be signed in the form of a master lease.

There is also a requirement that the equity investors in Driftwood LNG become joint and contingent guarantors of the master lease.

One of the world’s leading annual energy conferences, CERAWeek, was scheduled to begin in Houston on March 6 and will continue through March 10 with thousands of industry executives and politicians attending to consider the current turbulent global market.

The American Gas Association (AGA) welcomes a new report that examines regulatory changes that will support investments and infrastructure improvements necessary to support broader energy system resilience.

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.