CNG/LNG

CNG/LNG | Exporting | Industrywide Issues | Processing Plants

Souki’s Revenge Continues – Tellurian Lures Cheniere Exec as CEO
September 1, 2016September 1, 2016

Martin Houston, Meg Gentle, Chaif Souki

You may recall that evil corporate raider Carl Ichan fired the CEO of Cheniere Energy, Charif Souki, in December 2015 (see Evil Corporate Raider Carl Icahn Claims Another CEO Scalp). Souki is the founder and was the CEO of a company that opened the first LNG (liquefied natural gas) export facility in the U.S.–on the coast of Louisiana. Like Aubrey McClendon before him, who was also fired by Icahn, Souki decided to start up a new company to compete with his old company (see Revenge: Fired Cheniere CEO Starts Competing LNG Company). That new company, Tellurian Investments, established a subsidiary called Driftwood LNG. Driftwood has begun the pre-filing process with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to build an LNG export facility in Louisiana to compete with Cheniere (see Fired Cheniere Energy CEO Charif Souki’s Revenge: Driftwood LNG). More revenge: Souki has just hired away one of Cheniere’s top executives, Meg Gentle, to become president and CEO of Tellurian. What does this have to do with the Marcellus/Utica?…
Read More “Souki’s Revenge Continues – Tellurian Lures Cheniere Exec as CEO”
CNG/LNG | Exporting | Industrywide Issues | Regulation

FERC Rejects Application for Maine Downeast LNG Export Facility
August 18, 2016August 18, 2016

Ten years is long enough for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) when it comes to an LNG (liquefied natural gas) project. Yesterday FERC pulled the plug on an application from Downeast LNG, telling them their application to build an import/export plant along the shoreline of Maine (in Washington County) has been rejected. In December 2006, Downeast filed applications “for the siting, construction, and operation of an LNG import terminal and associated pipeline take-away facilities in Washington County, Maine.” In July 2014, Downeast filed a letter requesting the Commission initiate the pre-filing process for the conversion of its proposed import project facilities into a bidirectional import/export LNG terminal and associated pipeline facilities. The facility would use Marcellus Shale gas to export–an important new market for our overabundant gas supplies. In August 2014, the FERC approved Downeast’s request to pre-file the bidirectional import/export project. As recently as June 2015, Downeast boasted of plans to begin building the facility in 2017 (see Downeast Plans to Begin Building ME LNG Export Facility in 2017). But then oil prices crashed, and along with them, LNG prices. In May of this year, Downeast put their LNG project up for sale (see Downeast LNG Puts Maine LNG Export Project Up for Sale). Now it looks as though no one is going to build it, with FERC’s rejection. The agency said, in essence, it’s been ten long years with no appreciable progress, and that’s long enough…
Read More “FERC Rejects Application for Maine Downeast LNG Export Facility”
CNG/LNG | Dominion Energy | Energy Services | Exporting | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pipelines | Regulation

Cove Point LNG Now 67% Complete, Atlantic Coast Pipeline on Track
August 8, 2016August 7, 2016

Dominion Cove Point Terminal – click for larger version

Last week utility and midstream giant Dominion issued their second quarter update and held an earnings/analyst call to discuss the update. Sometimes those earnings calls are a treasure trove of information you don’t see in the prepared quarterly update, especially in the unscripted Q&A that follows prepared remarks. Such was the case last week. Dominion’s CEO and President, Tom Farrell, along with other top brass from the company, offered up key insights into the Cove Point LNG export project, the Atlantic Coast Pipeline project, Blue Racer Midstream (a Dominion’s joint venture project), and the status of leased acreage for which the company owns Marcellus/Utica drilling rights. A smorgasbord of yummy updates! Here they are…
Read More “Cove Point LNG Now 67% Complete, Atlantic Coast Pipeline on Track”
CNG/LNG | Industrywide Issues | Meetings

LNG Summit 2017 Coming to Houston in February
August 5, 2016August 5, 2016

LNG (liquefied natural gas) is a big deal and getting bigger–you know that if you’ve read MDN for any length of time. As the U.S. begins to shift into producing more natural gas than it can use here at home, exporting that gas, via LNG, is an important market–for the Marcellus, Utica and beyond.

MDN is happy to partner with and promote a major LNG event being held in Houston, TX in February. We invite you to attend the LNG US Summit 2017 in Houston on February 23-24, 2017. Major companies like Cheniere, Worley Parsons, Excelerate Energy, Osaka Gas, Nigeria LNG, GLE, GTT, GE Oil & Gas and many more will present. The LNG Summit will give you the latest details on projects and innovations in the LNG market. Topics include: the outlook for LNG market for the upcoming decade; major LNG buyers and sellers; the latest developments in small and mid-scale LNG. You’ll also hear about the strategies of major companies like one of our favorites, Cheniere. Get the lowdown on marketing and trading, and an inside look at the LNG business, the perils and the possibilities.

For a list of speakers and topics, check out the LNG Summit website: //www.lng-usa.com/
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | CNG/LNG | Industrywide Issues | Regulation

Rhode Island Commies Oppose “Fracked Gas” LNG Plant
August 4, 2016November 1, 2016

Click for larger version

A group of politicians from the Rhode Island Politburo are opposed to a plan by utility giant National Grid to construct a very small facility in the state to liquefy natural gas–turn it into LNG. Eight members of the RI Politburo (all of them socialist Democrats) are calling on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to reject National Grid’s plan. Why? You guessed it. Because that facility will accept and liquefy evil, vile nasty “fracked gas” from the Marcellus. And EVERYBODY knows that fracked gas is causing catastrophic global warming, right? What a group of dunces. Here’s who they are and what they’re claiming…
Read More “Rhode Island Commies Oppose “Fracked Gas” LNG Plant”
CNG/LNG | Exporting | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines

Bear Head LNG Export Plant: Bad News & Good News
August 3, 2016August 3, 2016

For some time now we’ve been tracking progress with an LNG export plant planned for the eastern shore of Nova Scotia, the Bear Head LNG project. Of all the Canadian LNG export projects that will export Marcellus gas, Bear Head seems to have the most momentum. The project has received most (if not all) of the necessary permits it needs to proceed. The most recent regulatory hurdle was a greenhouse gas approval from Nova Scotia, issued in July (see Bear Head LNG Gets GHG Plan Approval from Nova Scotia). However, there are a few troubling signs. The already-small parent company, LNG Limited, laid off 13 workers in July (see Bear Head LNG Parent Lays off 13 People, “LNG…difficult market”). We have two updates for you. Another key player has left LNG Limited–the founder of the company. That’s the bad news. The good news is that a new 62.5 kilometer (~39 mile) pipeline has been approved to connect Bear Head LNG to the Maritimes and Northeast Pipeline–the pipeline that will carry Marcellus gas from south to north, once the pipeline reverses its flow. So today it’s a bad news/good news day for Bear Head…
Read More “Bear Head LNG Export Plant: Bad News & Good News”
Bradford County | CNG/LNG | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Potter County

REV LNG Building Small-Scale LNG Facility Near Towanda, PA
August 2, 2016August 2, 2016

We’ve unearthed what we think is a neat story about a company we’ve written about before: REV LNG. Through his work with Shale Daily, MDN editor Jim Willis has had the pleasure of working with, and learning about, the unique technology REV LNG has developed. The company is one of the very few in the United States that buys, transports and sets up “mobile filling stations” (at drill pad sites) so drillers can use liquefied natural gas (LNG) to power their equipment. REV LNG’s uniqueness is that it’s a turn-key service. Customers just pay a “per gallon” fee to fill it up, and REV LNG takes care of the rest. REV LNG was one of the winners of the Shale Gas Innovation Contest in 2013, taking home $25,000 to help spread their technology (see Envelope Please: Winners of Shale Gas Innovation Contest are…). REV LNG is putting the money to good use. REV LNG is using that money plus an $800,000 technology innovation award from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection’s Alternative Fuels Incentive Grant Program to build a small-scale LNG facility near Towanda (Bradford County), PA, with possible plans to build another such facility in Potter County. The LNG produced by REV LNG will be used not only in the drilling industry, but also to power LNG truck fleets…
Read More “REV LNG Building Small-Scale LNG Facility Near Towanda, PA”
CNG/LNG | Dominion Energy | Energy Services | Exporting | Industrywide Issues

Cold Feet? Japan Wants to Swap Cove Point LNG for Asian LNG
August 2, 2016August 2, 2016

In April 2013, Dominion signed Japan and India to a deal to accept 100% of the LNG output that will come from their Cove Point, Maryland LNG export facility (see Dominion’s Cove Point LNG Facility Achieves Important Milestones). Cove Point is by now close to half built, since it was 24% complete in March and 38% complete in June (see Dominion Cove Point LNG Now 38% Built, Rapid Progress Continues). The closer it gets to completion, the more the Japanese are getting cold feet. Don’t worry, they can’t wiggle out of the contract. But they’re concerned that it will take 20 days to ship a cargo of LNG from Cove Point to Japan, when they could get gas in half that time from other sources. So the Japanese are playing “Let’s Make a Deal,” looking for partners willing to swap Cove Point cargos for Asian cargos of LNG. Here’s what the Japanese are proposing…
Read More “Cold Feet? Japan Wants to Swap Cove Point LNG for Asian LNG”
CNG/LNG | Exporting | Industrywide Issues | Processing Plants

Signs of Life in Canadian Goldboro LNG Export Project
August 2, 2016August 2, 2016

We’ve kept an eye on several LNG export projects along the Eastern shore of Canada (most of them in Nova Scotia) for some time. Why? Because they’re a huge potential market for Marcellus and Utica Shale gas. One of those projects, in Nova Scotia, is the Goldboro LNG project from Pieridae Energy. The most recent news we had was when the U.S. Dept. of Energy approved the plant for exporting to non-free trade agreement counties, back in February (see Goldboro LNG Project Gets Final DOE Approval – Good for Marcellus). That is, until today. Honeywell has announced it was selected to provide the Goldboro project with automation and safety systems and serve as the integrated main automation contractor. That is, we see signs of life in this project!…
Read More “Signs of Life in Canadian Goldboro LNG Export Project”
CNG/LNG | Energy Companies | Exxon Mobil | Industrywide Issues | M&A

ExxonMobil Buying InterOil for $2.5B – Another LNG Love Story
July 22, 2016July 22, 2016

In early 2015, MDN brought you the news that Shell was making a play to buy BG Group for $69.7 billion (see LNG Love Story: Shell Makes Play to Buy BG in $69.7B Megamerger). As we pointed out, the purchase was all about LNG, or liquefied natural gas. Shell consummated the deal in February of this year (see Shell & BG One Company After Today, Shell Ponies Up $14.4B Cash). The “man on the street” may not realize it, but the Shell/BG merger was the biggest such merger in the oil and gas industry since Exxon purchased and merged with Mobil in an $89 billion deal, back in 1999. ExxonMobil is now making its own LNG play. Yesterday the company announced a deal to purchase InterOil, an LNG company based in Papua New Guinea, for $2.5 billion. Yes, a MUCH smaller deal than the Shell/BG merger–but it points out the direction things are heading. Big Oil is making tracks to become Big Gas. The writing is on the wall. Eventually oil and petroleum-based products will recede. The obvious alternative is clean-burning natural gas. When the world’s largest oil companies say (and prove with their actions) that the future is in natural gas, well, that’s a tectonic shift in the oil and gas industry…
Read More “ExxonMobil Buying InterOil for $2.5B – Another LNG Love Story”
CNG/LNG | Ethane | Exporting | Industrywide Issues

Bear Head LNG Parent Lays off 13 People, “LNG…difficult market”
July 21, 2016July 21, 2016

We’ve previously reported on a number of LNG (liquefied natural gas) export projects planned for the eastern shore of Canada. There are four to five such projects, depending on how you count them. However, one of those projects–Bear Head LNG in Nova Scotia–seems to have the most momentum. It seems the project has received most (if not all) of the necessary permits it needs to proceed, the most recent one issued just last week (see Bear Head LNG Gets GHG Plan Approval from Nova Scotia). However, the parent company building Bear Head LNG, Liquefied Natural Gas Limited (headquartered in Australia), reports laying off a group of 13 high level executives in a bid to save money. With tens of thousands of people losing their jobs over the past few years, a company laying off 13 people seems pretty minor. But the way LNG Limited is presenting the news, and the way it’s being covered in the media, it makes us wonder about the financial stability of the company and indeed the future of the Bear Head LNG project. After all, if they fire 13 people to save what amounts to $3.15 million (A$4.2 million), and a project like Bear Head costs billions of dollars to build, oy vey!…
Read More “Bear Head LNG Parent Lays off 13 People, “LNG…difficult market””
CNG/LNG | Exporting | Industrywide Issues

Carl Icahn’s Cheniere CEO Buys 37,604 Shares of Stock
July 21, 2016July 21, 2016

Jack Fusco

After firing Cheniere Energy’s CEO and co-founder last December, Charif Souki, corporate raider Carl Icahn then installed his own puppet to run the LNG exporting company (see Carl Icahn Installs New Puppet as CEO of Cheniere Energy). The man Carl hired is Jack Fusco. Apparently Jack is confident in himself and in the future of Cheniere. After all, people like Icahn buy just enough stock to control the company, then they fire a bunch of people and sell off assets in a bid to raise the stock price so they can sell and exit with gobs of money in their pockets. That’s what evil corporate raiders do. Back to Jack. Fusco is reported to have snapped up $1.5 million worth of Cheniere’s stock a few days ago. Which makes us wonder–what does Jack know that we don’t?…
Read More “Carl Icahn’s Cheniere CEO Buys 37,604 Shares of Stock”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | CNG/LNG | Dominion Energy | Energy Services | Exporting | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Maryland | Processing Plants | Regulation | Statewide MD

Radical Enviro Groups Suffer Big Court Defeat re Cove Point LNG
July 18, 2016July 18, 2016

Anti-drilling zealots attempting to stop the Cove Point, Maryland LNG (liquefied natural gas) from going online have failed in court, again. And they failed big time. MDN reported in April that a group of Big Green groups, including the Sierra Club, the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, the Patuxent Riverkeeper, EarthReports Inc. and Earthjustice colluded together to sue in federal appeals court to try and stop the project (see Green Groups Ask DC Judge to Stop Construction at Cove Point LNG). On Friday the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled against the groups. The argument they raised (and keep raising) is that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) did not take into account so-called cumulative effects in permissioning such a facility. That is, because there is an export facility, that means there will be more drilling and fracking, and that means more air pollution, etc. The court rejected that claim and said in their decision (full copy below) that FERC is not required to consider such cumulative affects. Indeed, FERC’s charter prohibits them from considering such effects. This is a crushing defeat for Big Green–people and corporations who seek to profit from uneconomical solar and wind projects by unfairly crushing the competition (natgas)…
Read More “Radical Enviro Groups Suffer Big Court Defeat re Cove Point LNG”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | CNG/LNG | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Spectra Energy

Spectra Energy LNG Storage Project Proposed for Somerset, MA
July 18, 2016July 18, 2016

It’s hard to believe something as simple and uncomplicated and safe has a storage tank for liquefied natural gas (LNG) could be controversial. But if you irrationally believe all fossil fuels are evil, you’re against such a storage tank. That’s the battle now shaping up in Somerset, Massachusetts. Spectra Energy is looking to build “two giant storage tanks full of liquefied natural gas” at a site in town , near Walker Street. The town administrator is in favor because Spectra will pay the town $10 million in lieu of taxes. But anti-fossil fuel nutters are rising up to oppose the project–even though they do so using the very fossil fuels the abhor every single day of their pathetic lives–being wholly dependent on fossil fuels for their very existence…
Read More “Spectra Energy LNG Storage Project Proposed for Somerset, MA”
CNG/LNG | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines

Boston LNG Import Terminal Continues to Demagogue Pipelines
July 13, 2016July 13, 2016

One of the opponents of new pipelines to New England has been LNG importers in the region–specifically GDF Suez importing gas at the Everett, MA LNG import terminal, near Boston (see New England Importer Received 59% of All LNG Ship Imports 1H15). LNG imports are one of the primary sources of natgas for New England. The antis holler and scream, “Forget the pipelines. If you must use gas, use LNG. There’s more than enough LNG to supply New England.” In a macro sense that may be true–the world is awash in LNG. But arranging shipments and sources for it takes months, even years. Right now most of the LNG GDF Suez imports comes from Trinidad. The problem with that is, Trinidad’s natgas is drying up and the country is falling behind and not meeting their LNG commitments (see Is New England Heading for Huge NatGas Price Spike this Winter?). It’s not a stretch to imagine that even an average New England winter, coupled with fewer imports from Trinidad, means trouble ahead for New England. We spotted yet another story by mainstream media, this time Bloomberg, quoting the self-serving GDF Suez repeating the same, old hackneyed lies: “It doesn’t make sense to build a pipeline to satisfy demand for 30 to 40 days a year.” Horse manure…
Read More “Boston LNG Import Terminal Continues to Demagogue Pipelines”
CNG/LNG | Exporting | Industrywide Issues | Processing Plants | Regulation

Bear Head LNG Gets GHG Plan Approval from Nova Scotia
July 13, 2016July 13, 2016

We’ve previously reported on a number of LNG (liquefied natural gas) export projects planned for the eastern shore of Canada. There are four to five such projects, depending on how you count them. However, one of those projects–Bear Head LNG in Nova Scotia–seems to have the most momentum. Such projects needs loads of permits and approvals before the first shovel ever hits the dirt. It seems like Bear Head has most of its ducks in row, ready to begin. Importantly, both the U.S. (because the gas will come from the U.S.) and Canadian regulators have signed off on the project. But there are, as we are learning, still more permits and approvals needed. Bear Head just scored another important approval. The government of Nova Scotia has just granted Bear Head its approval of their Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Management Plan. Silly, we know. Adults with brains have to pretend that leaking CO2 or methane into the atmosphere is somehow endangering Mother Earth. But these are the games that people play in order to get business done. The Bear Head LNG project is important for the Marcellus/Utica because our gas will feed it via the Maritimes & Northeast Pipeline, making it an important new market for northeast natgas…
Read More “Bear Head LNG Gets GHG Plan Approval from Nova Scotia”