Elba Island Exporting First Marcellus LNG Cargo This Week – Maybe
On Oct. 1 the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) granted permission to Kinder Morgan to finally begin full export operations for Train #1 at the Elba Island, Georgia LNG (liquefied natural gas) export facility (see FERC OKs Kinder Morgan Elba Island LNG Train #1 to Begin Service). It’s taken over two months, but the very first LNG carrier that will export Marcellus/Utica molecules from the facility is docked and (maybe) loading.
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Williams, the pipeline giant, held its annual analyst day in New York City last Friday. The company’s top brass was there to wow and woo investors with the company’s plans for 2020 and beyond. In reading about the session, we picked up on some startling statistics. Stats like Williams now provides 30% of all LNG feed gas in the U.S. And most of that (all of it?) comes from the Marcellus/Utica.
As far as we can tell, MDN is exclusively breaking the following news: On December 5 (last Thursday), the PHMSA (Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration) granted a special permit to Energy Transport Solutions, LLC (i.e. New Fortress Energy) to transport LNG in DOT-113C120 rail tanker cars between Wyalusing, PA and Gibbstown, NJ. This is huge! There still is not a new regulation/law to allow shipment of LNG by rail across the country, but somehow New Fortress has gotten a special permit to do so anyway. Huge!
We’re always delighted to discover a new (for us) company involved in the supply chain–providing goods and/or services to the shale industry, including the downstream petrochemicals industry. Elliott Group is one of those companies not previously on our radar. Elliott’s U.S. headquarters is located in Westmoreland County, near Pittsburgh. The company designs, manufactures, and services turbomachinery, including centrifugal and axial compressors, steam turbines, and power recovery expanders. Elliott broke ground yesterday on a new facility in Jeannette where they will test their recently acquired product line of cryogenic pumps and expanders–equipment used in LNG plants.
Sometimes the bad guy wins. That’s life. It’s just happened in New York State. National Grid has caved–bowing to the extortion demands of an autocratic governor (Cuomo) in order to stay in business. New York’s system of justice is now fully, completely, 100% corrupted by Cuomo. A very sad day here in New York. Cuomo has claimed victory over National Grid and any other utility that would dare to challenge his autocratic, dictatorial authority in the state by getting National Grid to not only give up its demand for a new pipeline (Northeast Supply Enhancement, NESE) to provide natural gas supplies, but to actually pay a $36 million fine (i.e. bribe) in order to stay in business. Democracy is gone. Hello tyranny.
Do Rhode Island regulators read MDN? Maybe! On Monday we brought you a post about the coming natural gas outages like that experienced last January in the People’s Republic of Rhode Island, due to eco-socialist pressure to ban new natural gas infrastructure (see 
For some time we have criticized the 100 year-old Jones Act that prevents LNG carriers built and/or crewed by other counties from transporting LNG from one U.S. port to another U.S. port (see 
While on the surface the liquefied natural gas (LNG) marketplace may seem simple and straightforward, when you dig down you’ll find it is complex. There are different kinds of contracts between those who sell the gas, those who liquefy and ship it, and those who buy it. The LNG marketplace is, with the entrance of the U.S., changing rapidly. Our friends at RBN Energy recently posted an explanation for how it all works.
Quick, when we ask you how natural gas gets exported from the U.S. to other countries, what do you think of? LNG, right? That’s true. Yet while LNG grabs all the headlines, more than twice as much natural gas is exported to Canada and Mexico via pipeline every day than is exported to other countries via LNG ships. LNG is expanding and catching up–but it has a ways to go. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, during the first half of 2019 natural gas exports from the U.S. to other countries doubled–largely because of LNG.
Yesterday Dominion Energy announced it has sold a 25% stake in the completed Cove Point, Maryland LNG export facility to Brookfield Asset Management for a cool $2 billion. Dominion completed the $4.1 billion facility in 2018. The share just sold to Brookfield values the facility at $8.22 billion. Holy smokes! Nice play–to double the value of your investment in not much more than a year after completing it. What will Dominion do with all that cash?
In April President Trump issued an Executive Order (EO) directing the Secretary of Transportation to write a new rule allowing specially constructed tanker cars for railroads (DOT-113 tank cars) to ship LNG, i.e., liquefied natural gas (see