DOE’s 2016 LNG Year in Review – Sabine Pass Exports 184 Bcf!
The U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Fossil Energy has just released a full report of LNG (liquefied natural gas) imports and exports for all of 2016. The history books will look back at 2016 as the year when the world of LNG changed. Although it seemed like it took forever, in February 2016 Cheniere Energy shipped its first LNG export cargo from its Sabine Pass facility in southern Louisiana (see Cheniere Finally Ships First Sabine Pass LNG Export – to Brazil //marcellusdrilling.com/2016/02/cheniere-finally-ships-first-sabine-pass-lng-export-to-brazil/). From February through the end of December, Sabine Pass, which (we believe) included some Marcellus/Utica gas, exported an astounding 60 cargoes of LNG, moving nearly 184 billion cubic feet (Bcf) of American-made natural gas to other countries. Prices ranged from $3.72 to $6.21 per thousand cubic feet (Mcf). Cheniere (and others) are just getting started! Below is the full report from the DOE Office of Fossil Energy…
Read More “DOE’s 2016 LNG Year in Review – Sabine Pass Exports 184 Bcf!”
A. Schulman, Inc., headquartered in Fairlawn, OH, supplies plastic compounds and resins which are used as raw materials in a variety of markets. Yesterday the company announced that they will join several other companies in a joint effort to develop and produce the world’s first commercially viable low pressure natural gas storage tank for motor vehicles. A year ago MDN brought you news about a breakthrough in CNG (compressed natural gas) tanks for passenger vehicles (see 
Fossil fuel haters did their best to stop Dominion’s Cove Point LNG export facility in Lusby, Maryland. They sued (see 
As we pointed out to you last December, evil corporate raider Carl Icahn (invests in companies so he can fire a bunch of people, boost the stock and pocket the profit) had fired Cheniere Energy CEO Charif Souki (see 
Midstream and utility giant Dominion issued their fourth quarter and full year 2016 update yesterday. Just to give you an idea of the depth and breadth of the company, Dominion has ~26,000 megawatts of power generation, 14,400 miles of natural gas transmission, gathering and storage pipeline, and some 6,500 miles of electric-transmission lines. They are “a producer and transporter of energy.” Among the key projects we keep an eye one: the Cove Point, Maryland LNG export facility (under construction), the Greensville Power Station (under construction), and the Atlantic Coast Pipeline (soon to be under construction). The numbers are looking good. Revenue for Dominion in 4Q16 was $457 million, up $100 from 4Q15. Full year revenues were $2.1 billion, up from $1.9 billion in 2015. Below we have yesterday’s update, along with select portions of a conference call by Dominion’s muckety mucks and their comments about projects like Cove Point and Atlantic Coast Pipeline…
Many of the large integrated oil and gas companies produce an annual report that looks out over the next 20 years. Their best researchers peer into their crystal balls and make predictions about what will happen–and why. BP is one such company. Earlier this week BP released their annual “Energy Outlook – 2017 edition” (full copy below). The big news in the outlook, for us, is finding out that BP predicts LNG (liquefied natural gas) sales will grow seven times faster over the next 20 years than gas sold via pipelines. Making LNG a VERY important part of our future…
Despite near-term headwinds, the long-term future of global liquefied natural gas is positive for participants able to adapt to a more fragmented market, new and different customer expectations and more short-term and flexible commercial arrangements, according to Deloitte’s new report “Navigating the new world of LNG” (full copy below). In the near term, the industry expects to face headwinds of slowing demand growth, recent and imminent supply capacity expansions that could overtake the pace of demand growth, and a lower price environment that challenges the economic viability of new developments. But, “Long-term, strong underlying demand drivers and the opening of new markets could provide substantial opportunity for participants”…
Over a year ago the mighty Transco turned bidirectional, sometimes sending gas northward from the Gulf (as it’s done for 50 years), and now, sometimes sending gas from the Marcellus/Utica southward, to the Gulf. Much more gas will head south once the Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline project gets built (see 
Below is an article not directly mentioning or tied to the Marcellus/Utica, but we can’t help but wonder if there are not applications for our region. The article focuses on the marketing and “packaging” of LNG (liquefied natural gas) as the new and “hottest” thing to hit the power generation world. If an electric power generating plant (that uses natgas) doesn’t sit along the route of a natgas pipeline, it needs to get that natgas via other means. Many countries around the world–not just the U.S.–are making a change from burning coal to burning natural gas. So getting the gas to the plant is an issue. There is a long chain of vendors between where gas is produced and where it gets used at a powergen plant. The gas is extracted and then hits a pipeline. That pipeline must, at some point, flow to an LNG liquefaction plant that cools and condenses the gas. The LNG is then loaded on a ship (typically) and sailed to another country. At the other country the LNG is offloaded, delivered to the end user, and before it gets used, it must go through a regasification process. There’s a lot of moving parts and logistics involved in moving LNG from point A to point B. So what if a company, or coalition of companies, were to form an alliance and market a ‘one stop shopping’ solution for power plants and the governments in other countries that want to use LNG? That’s the premise, and that’s the promise of what is beginning to be offered. No new technology–just a new way to market it. Which has applications for our own region…
A professor from an Ohio college had the temerity to publish a guest column in the liberal Cleveland Plain Dealer taking federal regulators to task over the years-long wait time it takes to get a new LNG (liquefied natural gas) facility approved. Prof. Robert Chase, Emeritus Professor in the Department of Petroleum Engineering and Geology at Marietta College, says more natural gas needs to reach the world market, via LNG, and if it doesn’t, the lack of LNG exports will put Ohioans out of work. The good prof says the incoming Trump Administration and Congress needs to take “prompt action” to “speed up the licensing process for companies seeking permits to export liquefied natural gas.” Here, here! We fully agree…
In June 2015 MDN told you about a really cool plan by a Pennsylvania company to establish a CNG (compressed natural gas) terminal in Lycoming County, PA as a way to get natural gas to manufacturers, fleets and businesses where no pipeline infrastructure now exists (see 
In October 2014 Dominion announced they had officially broken ground on the Cove Point LNG export plant, a project that will inject between $3.4 and $3.8 billion in Calvert County, Maryland and pump upward of 1.8 billion cubic feet per day of cheap, abundant Marcellus and Utica Shale gas (see