About a month ago ago Sempra Energy’s Cameron LNG project in Lake Charles, La. began to liquefy and export natural gas–some of it coming from the Marcellus/Utica region (see Gulf Coast Cameron LNG Exporting Begins Service…with M-U Gas). Last Friday the facility went offline due to a “compressor problem.”
Read More “Compressor Problem Shuts Down Cameron LNG 1 Mo After Launch”
Any LNG (liquefied natural gas) export facility built or planned along the Eastern seaboard or Gulf Coast is critically important for the Marcellus/Utica. Why? Because they are BIG users of natural gas, big important (new) markets for our gas. Yes, M-U gas flows all the way to the Gulf Coast, to both Louisiana and Texas. Our friends at RBN Energy recently published the first in a short series providing an update on where U.S. LNG export demand and new projects stand. First up is a close look at LNG facilities at Elba Island (Georgia), Freeport (Texas) and Cameron (Louisiana).
Read More “LNG Export Facility Review Part 1: Elba, Freeport and Cameron”
The CME Group, formerly known as the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, is a global derivatives marketplace based in Chicago–originally founded to sell physical commodities like grain and eggs. These days CME Group offers a range of financial trading products across all major asset classes, including those based on interest rates, equity indexes, foreign exchange, energy, agricultural products and metals. CME Group is in the process of launching the world’s first-ever physically-delivered LNG contract. What is that and how does that affect our region?
Read More “CME Group Launching First-Ever Physical LNG Futures Contract”
Disappointingly, Kinder Morgan’s Elba Island LNG export facility is still not up and running. According to “frustrated” KM CEO Steve Kean, “We were making very good progress on Elba, and then Hurricane Dorian happened.” Sure, blame it on the hurricane. KM wisely evacuated personnel working on the Elba project to avoid Dorian–we have no issue with that. But let’s be honest, this project is WAY behind schedule, originally supposed to be online last year. And it’s one of the smaller LNG projects!
Read More “KM Evacuates Elba Island LNG Ahead of Dorian, More Delays”
New Fortress Energy is in the process of building the first (of two or more) LNG liquefying plants in Wyalusing, PA–nowhere near a shoreline. The company will truck (eventually rail) the LNG to a port located on the Delaware River along the New Jersey shoreline for export to Puerto Rico and other destinations. As we reported in July, work is now underway to clear the site before actual construction of buildings begins (see Work Begins to Clear Site for NEPA Landlocked LNG Export Plant). The site clearing work has progressed, rather nicely…
Read More “Work Continues to Clear Site for NEPA Landlocked LNG Export Plant”
Yesterday Sempra Energy’s Cameron LNG project in Lake Charles, La. began to liquefy and export natural gas–some of it coming from the Marcellus/Utica region. Nearly a month ago the facility asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for permission to begin full-blown operation (see Cameron LNG Export Plant Ready to Begin Operation This Week). FERC issued that permission shortly thereafter. We’re guessing there was some sort of technical issue that caused a delay until now. The good news is that the facility is now up and running…with our gas.
Read More “Gulf Coast Cameron LNG Exporting Begins Service…with M-U Gas”
Kinder Morgan, the largest pipeline company in the U.S., has left a string of broken promises about the date for which the first Elba Island LNG export plant “mini-train” would begin producing and shipping LNG. We’ve chronicled the journey extensively. According to an official update from KM in July, Elba was “in advanced stages of the commissioning and start up process, including LNG production” (see KM Says Elba Island in “Advanced Stage” of Commissioning/Startup). Very quietly, on Friday, Aug. 9, KM sought permission from FERC to begin operations on the first mini-train, asking to start no later than Friday, Aug. 16. Did it happen?
Read More “KM’s Elba Island Train #1 Now Producing LNG for Export?”
Our favorite government agency, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), published a post yesterday looking at natural gas deliveries to U.S. LNG export facilities. The post finds that in July gas flows to LNG export facilities hit a new record high of 6.0 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d). That’s an incredible 7% of all the natural gas produced in the U.S.
Read More “Gas Flowing to U.S. LNG Export Plants Hits Record High – 6 Bcf/d”
Last week MDN brought you an RBN Energy article that outlines how Marcellus/Utica gas hitches a ride to the Gulf Coast to feed several LNG export facilities–specifically the newly-minted Cameron LNG export facility (see Marcellus/Utica Gas Heads to Gulf Coast to Feed LNG Export Beast). LNG exports along the Gulf Coast are a hugely important current and future market for Marcellus/Utica gas. Today RBN is back with more details on the intricate network of pipelines used to get our gas to both the Sabine Pass and Cameron LNG export facilities located in Louisiana.
Read More “How Marcellus/Utica Gas Feeds Sabine Pass & Cameron LNG in La.”
Two radical left members of the U.S. House of Representatives–Chair of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure Peter DeFazio (D-OR), and Congressman Tom Malinowski (D-NJ)–sent a follow-up letter to the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) requesting an update on where the special permit for Energy Transport Solutions, LLC to move liquefied natural gas (LNG) by rail stands now that the public comment period has closed. The letter was not *really* about seeking information, but about threatening PHMSA, signaling that the agency had darned well better block LNG by rail. Or else.
Read More “Democrat House Members Try to Block New Fortress LNG by Rail”
Score a (very) minor victory for THE Delaware Riverkeeper, Maya van Rossum, in her holy mission to block a new fully authorized and permitted LNG export loading facility due to get built on the New Jersey bank of her beloved Delaware River (she thinks she owns the river and “speaks” for it). Riverkeeper filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for information about a facility New Fortress Energy is planning for a former DuPont dynamite factory site in NJ.
Read More “Delaware Riverkeeper Scores Minor Victory in LNG Export Case”
Marcellus/Utica gas hitches a ride to the Gulf Coast to feed several LNG export facilities. We previously outlined how some gas flows to Cheniere’s Sabine Pass LNG plant via Williams’ Transco system (see Williams Confirms Transco Now Ships Gas Directly to Cheniere LNG). We also told you about Utica gas reaching Sabine Pass via a connection from Rover Pipeline (see Some Rover Gas Flows All the Way to Gulf Coast LNG Export Plant). The experts at RBN Energy outline how M-U gas is flowing to the newly-minted Cameron LNG export facility (also in the Lake Charles area, near Sabine Pass) via the recently completed Mountaineer Xpress and Gulf Xpress pipeline expansions.
Read More “Marcellus/Utica Gas Heads to Gulf Coast to Feed LNG Export Beast”
Last November MDN told you that Northeast Energy Center, backed by Liberty Energy and NorthStar Industries, is proposing to build an LNG liquefaction plant in central Massachusetts (see LNG Liquefaction Plant May be Coming to Central Massachusetts). The plan is to connect to the Tennessee Gas Pipeline and chill natural gas into LNG for delivery to businesses and organizations like hospitals that are not connected to a natgas pipeline–but want to use this cheaper, cleaner-burning fuel source.
Read More “Mass. NatGas Power Plant Wants Nothing to Do with LNG Virtual Pipe”
No doubt you’ve noticed the price of natural gas has been relatively low over the past few weeks, dropping from around $2.40 per thousand cubic feet (Mcf) a month ago to now flirting with $2/Mcf. The last time gas prices went below $2/Mcf was in 2016. One of the reasons, believe it or not, that the price has fallen dramatically over the past few days is because of a single LNG export facility–Cheniere Energy’s Sabine Pass facility (which exports some M-U gas).
Read More “Can a Single US LNG Export Facility Affect the Price of NatGas?”
Stabilis Energy, based in Houston, TX, offers a complete range of fully integrated LNG fueling solutions from LNG production to LNG distribution and technical support across North America. Stabilis has just bought out and merged in another company, American Electric Technologies. And believe it or not, there IS a Marcellus/Utica tie-in.
Read More “LNG Virtual Pipe Co Stabilis Buys/Merges in American Electric”
U.S. Senator from Mississippi John Wicker (Republican), and Congressman John Garimendi from wacko California (Democrat), have re-introduced a really bad bill euphemistically called Energizing American Shipbuilding Act. We’ve extensively covered the 1920 Jones Act that prevents any shipping from one U.S. port to another unless the ship is *built* and *owned* by Americans. The Jones Act prevents us from shipping homegrown LNG to any ports because there are not big LNG carries made here in the U.S. (see The Jones Act Means Puerto Rico Can’t Import Marcellus LNG). The Energizing American Shipbuilding Act would go further than the Jones Act and require 15% of U.S. LNG exported to other countries be required to use American made and flagged LNG carriers.
Read More “Proposed New Federal Law Would Harm U.S. LNG Exports”