The Marcellus/Utica’s Biggest Competitor for LNG Exports…Alaska?!
LNG (liquefied natural gas) exports are an important and growing market for Marcellus/Utica natural gas. Two LNG export facilities currently export 100% M-U molecules: Cove Point, Maryland, and Elba Island, Georgia. However, our molecules make their way via a network of pipelines to several Gulf Coast LNG export facilities too, including the largest LNG export facility in the U.S., Cheniere Energy’s Sabine Pass. But is there a cloud on the horizon that threatens even more M-U gas from being liquefied and exported? Perhaps, and it comes from Alaska.
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Pieridae Energy’s Goldboro LNG project, located in Nova Scotia (with the potential to export Marcellus/Utica molecules) has been on our radar for years. Nine years to be exact. In August 2020 Pieridae hired a senior VP to run the project, an indicator the company is serious about building it (see 
MiQ is an independent, not-for-profit partnership between RMI and SYSTEMIQ aimed at reducing methane emissions from the oil and gas sector. The way they do it is with a certification. The MiQ Standard evaluates factors in methane intensity, company practices, and methane detection, giving the methane produced an A-F grade. Several M-U drillers, including EQT and Northeast Natural Energy, are adopting MiQ as part of their effort to prove they aren’t scumbags polluting Mom Earth. Now MiQ is expanding to certify entire cargoes of LNG that get exported.
The Jones Act prevents LNG from being transported from one U.S. port (like Cove Point, Maryland and Elba Island, Georgia) to other U.S. ports (like Boston and New York) because there are no built-in-the-USA LNG carriers, a requirement under the 1920 Jones Act. When New England runs low on natural gas, they must import the gas from Russia (see 
As an article in Offshore Energy says, “LNG as a fuel should be a no-brainer” for the shipping industry. LNG used for marine applications (powering ships) is an important and expanding market for natural gas, including Marcellus/Utica gas. However, the adoption of LNG in the newbuilding sector “seems to be rather slow.” Why is that?
For nearly every year of the past 20+ years, there has been a reliable, year-in-and-year-out #1 export (in dollar revenue) from the United States to the rest of the world. Care to hazard a guess what it has been? Aircraft, mostly from Boeing. The U.S. has a new most-valuable export in 2021 that has flown on by aircraft exports: Natural gas. The fact that natgas has dethroned aircraft exports does not square well with rabid American leftists who seek to destroy all fossil fuel markets, including natural gas. The vaunted position of natgas also presents a problem for the Biden administration and their plans to slip AOC’s Fat Green Deal through under the disguise of an “infrastructure and jobs” plan.
Cheniere Energy, the biggest LNG exporter operating in the U.S., published a “Climate Scenario Analysis Report” last week (full copy below). The report analyzes the long-term resilience of Cheniere’s business and the potential implications for LNG supply and demand in various future climate scenarios through 2040. Cheniere predicts LNG demand and exports to continue growing through 2040, but after that, LNG will decline due to continued global action to reduce so-called greenhouse gas emissions.
Last week a group of U.S. Senators, including John Kennedy (R-La.), Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), and Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), introduced the Natural Gas Export Expansion Act. The bill, if it becomes law, will remove regulatory bottlenecks for LNG (liquefied natural gas) and increase LNG exports to the more than 160 countries in the World Trade Organization.
Elon Musk is like a god to the wacko environmental movement. For those who don’t know, Musk founded PayPal in 1999. He then founded SpaceX in 2002 and Tesla Motors in 2003. Tesla manufactures electric-only cars. Musk became a multimillionaire in his late 20s when he sold his start-up company, Zip2, to a division of Compaq Computers. In January 2021, Musk reportedly surpassed Jeff Bezos as the wealthiest man in the world. But some of the bloom is coming off the rose of Elon Musk–at least for woke leftists. You see, Elon has a nasty natural gas habit. The god has fallen…
For years Vermont has made millions of dollars selling Renewable Energy Credits (RECs) to other states–a scam that allows pretentious environmentalists to claim they’re helping out the environment when in fact they still burn the same fossil fuels and biomass (i.e. woodburning) as they always did by paying a fee, a REC, and absolving themselves of feeling bad about it. Think of modern-day RECs like the Catholic Church selling indulgences in the Middle Ages to absolve you of your sins, or at least lessen the punishment for your sins. RECs are the new indulgences of the post-everything era we live in now. Selling REC indulgences is about to go away for Vermonters, and it may lead to widespread blackouts.
New Fortress Energy (NFE), which likes to build and own as much of the LNG supply chain as possible, built and operates an LNG import terminal in San Juan, Puerto Rico. After the facility was up and running, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) dinged the company, asking for an explanation as to why they built it without FERC “Mother May I?” permission. New Fortress responded last July saying FERC told them no permission was needed (see 
Feedgas, the natural gas flowing to U.S. LNG export terminals that gets liquefied and shipped to foreign destinations, hit a new all-time high on Wednesday: 11.65 billion cubic feet (Bcf) in a single day. All six major U.S. LNG export facilities currently in operation contributed to the surge, including Cove Point in Maryland and Elba Island in Georgia (both export 100% Marcellus/Utica molecules). M-U molecules are also exported from most of the other four active LNG export facilities, including large amounts of our molecules flowing to Cheniere Energy’s Sabine Pass facility.