LNG

The US Government expects liquefied natural gas exports to increase in 2023 and 2024 but in the short term during April and May there would be slight declines in the nation’s natural gas output because of pipeline maintenance.

EQT Corp. the largest producer of natural gas in the United States through hydraulic fracturing, has announced the completion of a programme to eliminate methane emissions from natural gas-powered pneumatic devices in production operations.

The American Gas Association (AGA) has filed for a re-hearing and clarification on a regulatory clampdown on interstate natural gas facilities by saying that the greenhouse-gas emissions issue is being misused by government.

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.

Pembina Pipeline Corp., the Canadian infrastructure company, said there was still uncertainty surrounding the future of its Jordan Cove LNG export project in the northwest US state of Oregon as Pembina planned to take a natural gas pipeline one-off charge in the fourth quarter.

Sempra Energy’s Mexican subsidiary IEnova said objections had been formally lodged against its Pacific Coast Costa Azul liquefied natural gas export plant in the nearby city of Ensenada.

Sempra plans to have two more North American export plants in addition to its existing Cameron LNG facility at Hackberry in Louisiana and these include a Texas project at Port Arthur and at Costa Azul in the Mexican state of Baja California.

Now IEnova has just announced that objections have been raised before the Office of Urban Management, Ecology and Environment of Ensenada’s city council.

IEnova said in a statement that the objections are against certain municipal permits granted in favor of the Costa Azul liquefaction project that is being developed on land adjacent to the existing LNG import terminal.

“IEnova considers that these claims are unfounded and inadmissible and will enforce their rights in the corresponding procedure, seeking to dismiss the claims of the plaintiffs,” said the company.

The objectors are two real estate companies named by IEnova as Inmuebles y Fraccionamientos Peninsulares SA and Inmobiliaria Aquino SA.

The Sempra subsidiary, whose official name is Infraestructura Energetica Nova SA , is overseeing the whole LNG project in addition to its growing Mexican business in the natural gas pipeline and energy and power sectors.

Under Sempra’s plan for the Costa Azul export plant, the facility will be constructed in two phases. 

The first part of the transformation of the plant will see the building of a single liquefaction Train to be located adjacent to the existing terminal and with capacity for 2.4 MTPA of exports.

The Mexican project has already signed three accords with French major Total and Japanese companies Mitsui & Co. and Tokyo Gas for the full export capacity of Phase 1 development at Costa Azul.

The Costa Azul venture has additionally received US authorizations for natural gas to be exported to Mexico and re-exported to Non-Free Trade Agreement countries. 

Costa Azul was the first LNG import terminal on North America's West Coast and was built in 2008. It is located 15 miles north of Ensenada and with bi-directional pipeline connections to the US.

The Costa Azul facility previously benefited from south-to-north flows on the North Baja pipeline. However, north-to-south flows on the West Coast now predominate.

Sempra’s IEnova unit continues to be a main natural gas pipeline developer in Mexico.

Among its assets are its stake in the South Texas-Tuxpan pipeline bringing US natural gas to the southern Gulf Coast side of the country.

This pipeline is seen as fundamental to maintaining a reliable gas service in the southeast of Mexico with 2.6 billion cubic feet per day of capacity.

The pipeline crosses part of the Gulf of Mexico from Texas and was built at a cost of $2.5 billion. It is owned by IEnova and Canadian pipeline company TC Energy.

The South Texas-Tuxpan pipeline is inter-connected to the Valley Crossing Pipeline in Texas completed by Enbridge Inc., another Canadian company like TC Energy and based in Calgary.

The 168-mile Valley Crossing pipeline runs from the Agua Dulce hub in Texas to the Gulf of Mexico east of the port of Brownsville. 

The US state of Pennsylvania has seen natural gas production average 5 billion cubic feet per day in 2017, an increase of 3 percent and a record for the state, with output coming largely from shale-gas plays in the Appalachian Basin and will have long-term benefits for LNG producers such as the Cove Point plant in Maryland.

US LNG exports from the Sabine Pass plant rose to five vessels with capacity of 18.4 billion cubic feet of natural gas compared with three the previous week as pipeline exports to Mexico also rose and domestic consumption increased as well.

Kinder Morgan, one of the largest US pipeline companies, and Colorado-based DCP Midstream have signed a letter of intent for DCP to participate in the development of the proposed Gulf Coast Express Pipeline Project to ship Permian Basin natural gas to the Texas Gulf Coast and its LNG projects.