Pieridae Delays Future LNG Exports from Goldboro N.S.
Canada’s Pieridae Energy, planning to build the Goldboro LNG project in Nova Scotia, announced in April it would not make a final investment decision (FID) to build the $10 billion project until “conditions improve” (see Pieridae Delays FID on Nova Scotia Goldboro LNG Export Project). Pieridae has a contract with German utility Uniper to deliver LNG beginning late 2024/early 2025. That timeline has now changed too.
Read More “Pieridae Delays Future LNG Exports from Goldboro N.S.”
LNG Limited (LNGL), based in Australia, has been working on a couple of North American LNG export projects over the past half-decade or more. One of them, called Bear Head, would be built in Nova Scotia, Canada and (potentially) export Marcellus/Utica molecules. The other, Magnolia LNG, would be located in Louisiana and yes, potentially export M-U molecules as well. LNGL was in the process of selling itself and its LNG projects to Singapore investor LNG9 PTE for $75 million when LNG9 pulled out of the deal (see 
The shutdown of the world’s economy is not only affecting oil usage (and prices), it’s also affecting the usage and prices of LNG–liquefied natural gas. LNG and natgas usage are down around the world–particularly in Europe and Asia. Less demand means lower prices, and (in this case) the cancelation of a number of tankers that were supposed to deliver our LNG to other countries. Reuters is reporting 23 or more U.S. LNG cargoes for June loading have now been canceled.
In contrast to today’s story about LNG being on the ropes (see US LNG Export Cargoes Canceled as Coronavirus Destroys Demand), the International Gas Union (IGU) published its annual LNG report yesterday. The report highlights the material changes in the global LNG industry happening in 2019. The worldwide LNG trade increased by 13% to a total of 354.7 MT (million tons). The Marcellus/Utica gets a prominent shoutout in the report.
For years we’ve had a Canadian LNG export project on our radar, bringing you news about the project, hoping that prodigious amounts of Marcellus/Utica gas would be used at the plant. The project is called the Goldboro LNG project, planned by Pieridae Energy for the coast of Nova Scotia. In July 2018 we told you Pieridae was getting close to a final investment decision (FID) to build the $10 billion project (see 
LNG Limited (LNGL), based in Australia, has been working on a couple of North American LNG export projects over the past half-decade or more. One of them, called Bear Head, would be built in Nova Scotia, Canada and (potentially) export Marcellus/Utica molecules. The other, Magnolia LNG, would be located in Louisiana and yes, potentially export M-U molecules as well. LNGL was in the process of selling itself and its LNG projects to Singapore investor LNG9 PTE for $75 million. LNG9 has just canceled the deal, leaving the future both the Bear Head and Magnolia projects in question.
There’s at least a partial truce in the ongoing tariff war between the U.S. and China. President Trump began slapping tariffs on certain Chinese imports in retaliation for China’s longstanding policy of ripping off U.S. intellectual property, stealing our trade secrets, and in some cases blocking our goods and services from selling in their country. We’ve had a grossly unfair trade situation with China taking advantage of the U.S. for decades (under weak presidents). Trump had the you-know-whats to put a stop to it. The so-called trade war escalated and China slapped tariffs on certain commodities we used to sell there–including LNG (natural gas). We haven’t sold an LNG cargo to China in over a year. Until now. China is suddenly waiving their 25% tariff on U.S. LNG. Four U.S. LNG cargoes are steaming to the Orient right now.
Is this the beginning of a pullback from LNG projects? Scared of the impacts of the coronavirus and the price of oil crashing, Royal Dutch Shell is pulling out of a 50/50 joint venture partnership with Energy Transfer (ET) to build a new LNG export facility in Lake Charles, Louisiana. In corporate speak, Shell says, “This decision is consistent with the initiatives we announced last week to preserve cash and reinforce the resilience of our business,” and “the time is not right for Shell to invest.” Translation: We’re scared. And who can blame them? All of a sudden there are LNG cargoes sailing the oceans with no place to unload (see 
Last May MDN told you about JAX LNG in Jacksonville, Florida–a joint project between Pivotal LNG (a subsidiary of Southern Company Gas) and NorthStar Midstream (a pipeline company in the Bakken Shale), touted as the “first” small-scale LNG plant to be located along the shoreline, allowing it to fuel up LNG ships–ships that use LNG as fuel, instead of diesel–and also allowing the LNG to be loaded onto trucks and trains for transportation to power plants and industrial/commercial operators (see 
LNG Limited, based in Australia, has been working on a couple of North American LNG export projects over the past half-decade or more. One of them, called Bear Head, would be built in Nova Scotia, Canada and (potentially) export Marcellus/Utica molecules. The other, Magnolia LNG, would be located in Louisiana and yes, potentially export M-U molecules as well. LNG Limited is in the process of selling itself and its LNG projects to Singapore investor LNG9 PTE for $75 million, a deal expected to close around the end of May. However, LNG Limited needs more cash to keep the doors open until then. First Wall Street Capital Corp. recently bailed on giving LNG Limited a bridge loan to get them through.
It seems no market has been left untouched by the COVID-19 coronavirus. Not even the LNG (liquefied natural gas) market. Force majeures–cancelations of LNG contracts due to circumstances “beyond our control”–are now an almost daily occurrence. Big tankers full of LNG often leave a port without a final destination, receiving instructions along the way on where the ship will unload the LNG. A cascading number of force majeures has some of those ships sailing around, “all dressed up but nowhere to go.”
We continue to be impressed with New Fortress Energy and its aim to own as much of the LNG supply chain as possible. The company is building an LNG (liquefied natural gas) liquefaction plant in northeast Pennsylvania (see 
Shale Gas News is a weekly radio program that plays on three radio stations in Pennsylvania. Last weekend’s show featured a segment with Colin Grabow, a policy analyst at the Cato Institute’s Herbert A. Stiefel Center for Trade Policy Studies. Grabow’s research focuses on domestic forms of trade protectionism such as the Jones Act and the U.S. sugar program. Yes, the Jones Act again! During the segment, Grabow describes what the Jones Act is and how it negatively affects U.S. shale gas exports to places like New England and Puerto Rico (see 