Pipeline Maintenance Slows Gas Deliveries to LNG Export Plants
It’s that time of year again. Annual maintenance along pipelines that feed several major U.S. liquefaction (LNG) facilities will negatively impact gas deliveries to some terminals over the next six weeks according to notices to customers. Pipelines that serve the Cove Point, Maryland LNG facility and the Sabine Pass, Louisiana facility will be affected. Marcellus/Utica gas flows to both facilities.
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MDN previously told you about so-called environmentalists filing a lawsuit to block the construction of an LNG unloading facility in Greenpoint, Brooklyn (see 
Last December MDN told you that a REV LNG small-scale LNG facility near Towanda (in Wyalusing, Bradford County, PA), had successfully supplied LNG to support the bunkering of a marine vessel at the Port of Hamilton in Ontario (see 
On Tuesday the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported that due to rising spot demand in both the winter and summer months from Asia and Europe, and lower natural gas prices here in the U.S. versus the price elsewhere, LNG exports in the U.S. hit record hights for the first half of this year. That’s good news for Marcellus/Utica drillers and landowners. LNG exports jumped to an average of 9.6 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) between January and June 2021, up by 42% compared with the first half of 2020.
So-called environmentalists filed a lawsuit last week to block the construction of an LNG unloading facility in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. National Grid, a huge utility company that supplies natural gas to all of Long Island, including two New York City boroughs (Queens and Brooklyn), needs a way to inject more natural gas into its distribution system…or else. Or else during extreme winter weather events some folks will run out of gas for heating and cooking. Antis don’t care–until they’re the ones who run out.
According to one of our favorite Forbes authors and research analyst, Jude Clemente, “demand for natural gas can only grow.” Right now the world collectively uses 375 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) of natgas. Clemente says demand “is set to grow substantially in the years ahead.” One of the drivers of that growth will be carbon-neutral LNG. What is it and why will it drive more use of natgas? Clemente explains…
Strong demand for LNG from Europe and Asia is causing the price of natural gas to go high and (for now) stay high (see 
Yesterday, National Grid issued its Natural Gas Long-Term Capacity Second Supplemental Report (full copy below). The report reaffirms the company’s commitment to achieving a mythical so-called “net zero carbon” future. Whatever. The report provides an update on the short- and long-term energy needs of downstate New York customers, reviews the status of targeted solutions identified by the company in 2020, and emphasizes the importance of ensuring that no customer is left behind during the transition to a magical net zero future. How will they accomplish it? According to this updated report, with *more* natural gas.
According to Bloomberg, the world’s importers of natural gas are waking up to a stark realization: “there isn’t enough supply to go around.” Our long, cold winter (so much for “global warming”) coupled with a warm and toasty summer has (a) depleted natural gas supplies, and (b) will keep those supplies low going into next winter. Despite all the blabbering from Europe and Asia about switching to so-called renewable energy sources, the stark fact is that natural gas supplies more heat and electricity to the world than any other single source. Period. Sooner or later the left must deal with reality and pull their collective heads out of their… fantasies.
Cheniere Energy Inc., the biggest LNG exporter in the U.S., is using its bigness to lean on natural gas drillers (in the upstream) and pipeline companies (in the midstream) to “clean up the natural gas supply chain.” How? To force drillers and pipelines to get their operations to so-called net zero carbon emissions sooner rather than later. Given the fact Cheniere buys up 7-8% of ALL natural gas supplies in the country on any given day, they can and are throwing their weight around to force others to do what they want. The LNG tail is wagging the natural gas dog.
A preliminary report by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine finds the transportation of LNG (liquefied natural gas) by various methods–sea, road, AND by rail–is perfectly safe. Currently, LNG is not widely transported by rail in the U.S., but rail is used in other countries to transport LNG. Last year Congress instructed the government-funded National Academies to study the issue. They’ve issued a preliminary study called “Preparing for LNG by Rail Tank Car: A Review of a U.S. DOT Safety Research, Testing, and Analysis Initiative” (full copy below).