Europeans Presume to Impose Their Regulations on American Gas
This one gets under our skin. The European Union’s idiotic methane regulations will soon come into full force, prompting oil, gas, and coal companies to monitor, measure and report their emissions. The same restrictions will also apply to energy imports. That impacts the United States, the EU’s largest liquefied natural gas supplier. In other words, the arrogant Europeans presume to tell us that we must follow *their* regulations! To which we say (multiple expletives deleted)…
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On Wednesday, the International Gas Union (IGU) released its 15th annual 2024 World LNG Report, the world’s most comprehensive public source of information on key developments and trends in the LNG sector (full copy below). According to the report, the global liquefied natural gas (LNG) market has a newfound but fragile equilibrium. The global LNG trade reached a record level of 401.42 million metric tons in 2023, growing by 2.1% or 8.4 million tons from the previous year. However, the pace of growth decreased last year over the previous year. Why? Not enough LNG supply to meet worldwide demand.
Yesterday, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued a decision to approve Venture Global’s plan to build a second Calcasieu Pass LNG export plant called CP2 LNG. The vote was 2 to 1, with a predictable negative vote by the outgoing Allison Clements (former attorney for the radicalized organization National Resources Defense Council). Venture Global’s existing Calcasieu Pass LNG facility can liquefy and export 10 million metric tonnes per annum (MTPA) of LNG. The CP2 project will be twice as large and will be able to export 20 MTPA (with a peak capacity of approximately 24 MTPA). Huge! But there’s a problem…
The Sabine Pass LNG terminal, owned and operated by Cheniere Energy, is spread over an 853-acre site in Cameron Parish, Louisiana. The facility is the largest LNG terminal in the world, with a total send-out capacity of 4.1 Bcf/d (billion cubic feet per day) and a storage capacity of 16.8 Bcf. The facility’s “nameplate” capacity, with six trains operating, is roughly 30 mtpa (million tons per annum). Around 330 MMcf/d (million cubic feet per day) of M-U molecules flow to the Sabine Pass facility, getting there by various interstate pipelines. Last Friday, flows to the facility dropped to 3.4 Bcf/d.
For those (like the dunce who heads up the Dept. of Energy, Jennifer Granholm) who say Uncle Joe’s “pause” on authorizing new LNG export requests isn’t having an impact, how do you respond to this?… Russia has overtaken the United States as the top exporter of natural gas to Europe. Why? Because the Europeans are scared to death they will run out of natgas promised by the U.S. Biden’s pause on new export authorizations has Europe scrambling to ensure their citizens don’t freeze to death next winter.
Venture Global has been screwing its contracted customers by denying LNG shipments to them from its Calcasieu Pass (CP) LNG export facility for over two years, instead shipping over 200 cargoes to other buyers (at higher prices) rather than honoring its contracts. So why in the world would ANYONE sign a new deal with Venture Global for LNG shipments, given the company’s history of screwing its contracted customers? As Phineas Taylor Barnum is reputed to have said, “There’s a sucker born every minute.” This time, it’s DTEK Group of Ukraine.
Venture Global’s Calcasieu Pass LNG export facility received FERC authorization to place the final three liquefaction blocks (7-9) into service last fall (see 
We’ve been tracking the up down up down up down situation at Freeport LNG since it came online in 2019. Freeport was mostly offline this year following an episode of cold temps in January (see 
Why are we not surprised? We’ve been tracking the up down up down up down situation at Freeport LNG since it came online in 2019. Freeport was mostly offline this year following an episode of cold temps in January (see 
Earlier this month, MDN brought you the great news that New Fortress Energy’s (NFE) proposed Wyalusing LNG export plant (in Bradford County, PA) and a docking facility in Gibbstown (in New Jersey, along the Delaware River) to load ships with PA-produced LNG, are not dead yet (see 
In January, President Biden announced he would “pause” any approvals for new LNG export plants (currently 17 requests in the pipeline) for at least one year while his people fart around pretending to figure out how to measure global warming as a new consideration for whether or not to approve projects (see 
LNG (liquefied natural gas) that is exported from the U.S. to Asia takes one of three routes to get there. One route is via the Panama Canal, crossing into the Pacific Ocean and on from there. Another is via the Atlantic Ocean to the Suez Canal and from there via the Red Sea, which connects to the Indian Ocean. The third way is sailing through the Atlantic Ocean and around the Cape of Good Hope off the southern tip of Africa. In the past, both the Panama Canal and the Suez Canal were the preferred routes, shaving weeks from the journey. However, given recent events, the dynamic has completely changed. Now, the preferred route is the longest route — around the Cape of Good Hope.
In 2020, Congress mandated a report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to assess the U.S. Coast Guard’s ability, methods, and role in conducting the certificate of compliance (COC) program for the foreign-flag tanker ships known as liquefied gas carriers (LGCs) and to consider the need for statutory reforms. The National Academies released its report yesterday with recommendations for how the Coast Guard can and should update its LNG carrier certification program.
Although the weakened Bidenistas signaled they would consider lifting the political “pause” on approving new LNG export projects if Congress would vote to grant HUGE piles of money for the wars in Ukraine and Israel, and even though Republicans had the Bidenistas on the ropes, at the last minute the GOP didn’t press the advantage and voted in favor of the aid package without requiring Biden to lift the LNG pause. It is a shame and a wasted opportunity. So what happens now? The so-called LNG review goes forward, and new global warming criteria will be used (at least during the Biden administration) to evaluate new LNG export projects.
On the demand front, we’ve been tracking the up down up down up down and now up again situation at Freeport for weeks (months, years). Freeport had been mostly offline following an episode of cold temps in January (see