Exxon Plans to Double LNG Biz by 2030 to Supply Asia & Europe
An Exxon Mobil executive told the Nikkei news service his company is looking to nearly double the volumes of liquefied natural gas (LNG) it is handling to more than 40 million tons per annum (MTPA) by 2030. Exxon currently handles roughly 22 MTPA now. The company plans to invest in LNG projects, offshore oil in Guyana and South America, and in U.S. shale (the Permian). What about the Marcellus/Utica?
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Cheniere Energy CEO Jack Fusco dropped a verbal bomb at the LNG 2023 conference held last week in Vancouver, British Columbia (Canada). Fusco told journalists that his company “will likely build a pipeline” that connects to other pipelines to flow even more natural gas to its Sabine Pass LNG export facility that sits near Sabine Lake, close to the Gulf Coast. The motivation is to get more gas for a planned “stage 5” expansion of the Sabine Pass facility, designed to liquefy and export an additional 20 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) of LNG.
In April 2022, MDN told you about Nopetro LNG’s plans to construct and operate as many as three liquefaction trains in Port St. Joe, Florida, that will liquefy up to 3.86 billion cubic feet (Bcf) per year of natural gas for export and delivery to markets in the Caribbean, Central America, and South America (see 
Yesterday, Japan’s JERA Co. Inc. and Korea Gas Corp. (KOGAS) announced a new initiative called the Coalition for LNG Emission Abatement toward Net-zero (“CLEAN”). The private-public initiative has the support of the governments of Japan, South Korea, Australia, the U.S., and Europe, whose representatives signed a framework agreement for creating a mechanism to monitor methane emissions. “To support the Coalition, Japan and the European Commission expressed their vision to create a globally aligned methane emission assessment of LNG projects and to incentivize methane mitigation by LNG producers by facilitating the information collection process of methane leakage counter measures and methane reduction targets,” a joint statement by the allies said.
Driftwood LNG, a 27.6 million tonnes of LNG per year facility that will cost on the order of $16.8 billion to build, has not made an official final investment decision (FID) to proceed with building the FERC-approved project. However, construction began on the project in March 2022 (see 
Yesterday the International Gas Union (IGU) released its 14th annual 2023 World LNG Report–the world’s most comprehensive public source of information on key developments and trends in the LNG sector (full copy below). With the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the gas markets went wild last year. The IGU report calls 2022 the “most turbulent year of gas markets” in history and says, “LNG demonstrated essential value as a flexible, reliable, available energy resource for a secure energy transition.” Forget about the energy transition nonsense in that statement. The fact is, LNG saved the day over the past year plus. LNG, particularly U.S. LNG, pulled Europe’s bacon out of the fire.
In July 2020, Dominion Energy announced it had decided to exit the natural gas pipeline business by selling it to Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Energy (see 
LNG, or liquefied natural gas, is an important market for Marcellus/Utica drillers. It’s also a big deal worldwide. In 2022, global trade in LNG set a record high, averaging 51.7 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d), a 5% increase compared with 2021. At one point in 2022, the U.S. became the largest LNG exporter in the world. But then there was an explosion and fire at the Freeport LNG export terminal in June (see 
In the early days of the shale revolution, Marcellus/Utica drillers (all shale drillers) were incentivized by shareholders to drill at any cost. The philosophy was “drill baby drill,” believing pipelines would somehow get built to handle the increasing production volume. Over the past three years or so, since about the time the pandemic began, things have changed. Instead of “drill baby drill,” the rallying cry is now “curtail volumes,” “delay completions,” and “game-time decisions.” M-U producers have learned to “walk the line” of matching production with local demand, storage, and firm pipeline capacity.
A month MDN told you about a coming real-life nightmare that the Everett LNG import terminal, which accepts and regasifies foreign natural gas, may shut down following the closure of New England’s biggest natural gas-fired power plant, the Mystic Generating Station in Everett, MA (see 
Freeport LNG’s export terminal with three liquefaction “trains” shut down in June 2022 after an explosion and fire (see 
In March, MDN brought you the news that New Fortress Energy (NFE) confirmed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that it plans to apply for updated permits to build an LNG export plant in landlocked northeastern Pennsylvania (see 
There is no doubt that LNG (liquefied natural gas) exports are a key and increasingly critical customer for our domestic natural gas–including gas produced in the Marcellus/Utica. The evil (and clever) minds of anti-fossil fuel zealots are always thinking up new ways to block domestic oil and gas production. Their latest strategy is to pressure (i.e., bully) Big Insurance companies into dropping insurance policies for LNG export plants. If the plants can’t get insurance to protect them against potential disasters, they can’t operate.
In March, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) published its Annual Energy Outlook 2023 (see