A recent Bloomberg article got it wrong, as they typically do, with this headline: “Biggest Threat to Once-Prized Gas Is Getting Kicked Out of Homes.” Residential natural gas use has been relatively flat, for years. Yet natural gas demand has rocked upward, which begs the question–so who are the new customers using all that gas? MDN friend Jude Clemente has the answer…
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Category: Exporting
Where Will New Fortress Energy’s Marcellus LNG Port be Located?
We’ve been tracking the story of a coming $800 million LNG export plant that will be built in rural northeastern Pennsylvania (see Big News! Marcellus LNG Export Plant Coming to Landlocked NEPA). Two days ago we shared the news that some of the Marcellus molecules from the plant will go to Puerto Rico to power electric plants (see PA Marcellus Gas to Power Electric Plant in…Puerto Rico?!). But between northeast PA and Puerto Rico, somewhere, somehow the LNG must get loaded onto a ship. Where will that happen? We think we know.
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Philadelphia LNG Export Plant One Vote Away from Happening
Russian native Boris Brevnov (former Enron executive) and his partner Charles Ryan (a Radnor native, once the chief country officer in Moscow for Deutsche Bank), are now one vote away from Philadelphia City Council approving a $60 million Marcellus LNG export facility, to be built on property owned by Philadelphia Gas Works (PGW).
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One Step Closer: FERC OKs Feed Gas to Elba Island LNG
Yesterday the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) granted a request to Kinder Morgan to “introduce feed gas, back-up fuel, and BOG fuel” to the first of what will be 10 production units at its Elba Island, Georgia LNG export facility. This is yet another step toward bringing the facility online.
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PA Marcellus Gas to Power Electric Plant in…Puerto Rico?!
We’ve been tracking the story of a coming $800 million LNG export plant that will be built in rural northeastern Pennsylvania (see Big News! Marcellus LNG Export Plant Coming to Landlocked NEPA). We recently shared the news that some of the Marcellus molecules from the plant will go to Puerto Rico (see Wyalusing, PA LNG Export Plant Making Progress). We now know where and for what purpose.
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Some M-U Molecules Go to Canada East Coast via US Gulf Coast
This is wack. Instead of expanding and connecting pipelines to carry Marcellus/Utica natural gas to New England and from there on to the Canadian Maritimes (New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island), some M-U gas now heads there after traveling all the way to Cheniere Energy’s Sabine Pass LNG export facility on the coast of Louisiana.
NOTE: Please see below for a correction to this post.
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Nova Scotia Indians Shake Down a 2nd LNG Export Project
Earlier this month MDN brought you the news that one of two active LNG export projects in Nova Scotia had agreed to pay (off) an undisclosed amount of money to the The Mi’kmaq (pronounced mic-mac) indigenous peoples of Nova Scotia (i.e. Indians), a payment of which means the Indians will leave them alone so they can build their facility and not face endless lawsuits (see Pieridae Energy Pays Off Nova Scotia Indians to Allow LNG Plant). It’s just happened again.
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Exxon Building New Gulf Coast LNG Export Plant, M-U to Feed
Last week ExxonMobil and Qatar Petroleum announced a final investment decision (FID) to build Golden Pass LNG terminal, on the Texas side of the Sabine-Neches Waterway. That’s a stone’s throw from Cheneire Energy’s Sabine Pass LNG terminal on the Louisiana side of the waterway. Marcellus/Utica gas flows to the Cheniere facility. Will it also flow to Exxon’s when it’s built?
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Pieridae Energy Pays Off Nova Scotia Indians to Allow LNG Plant
Pieridae Energy wants to build an LNG export plant in Nova Scotia, Canada. The Mi’kmaq (pronounced mic-mac) indigenous peoples of Nova Scotia (i.e. Indians) have never formally surrendered their “ownership” claim of Nova Scotia–a claim long disputed. In order to build and operate the Goldboro LNG export facility, Pieridae has agreed to pay off the Mi’kmaq. Call it “leave us alone” money.
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The Future of Ethane Exports from Marcus Hook, PA
Ethane exports came from nowhere, dead zero, three years ago and took off like gangbusters until mid-last year, in no small part because of Marcellus/Utica ethane exports coming from the Marcus Hook refinery near Philadelphia. But part of the way through last year those exports began to decline–and not because of lack of ethane flowing through the Mariner East pipelines. Nope. They declined due to lack of demand.
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East Coast Dominates LPG Exports via Philly’s Marcus Hook
According to RBN Energy, “U.S. production of natural gas liquids is projected to increase by 17% this year, and by another 10% in 2020.” NGLs cover a variety of hydrocarbons. Two NGLs, propane and butane, are further classified as LPG–or liquefied petroleum gas. Of the four “smaller” LPG export facilities here in the U.S., two-thirds of all exported LPGs last year came from one–Energy Transfer’s Marcus Hook refinery near Philadelphia.
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Bradford County Conducts Housing Survey to Prepare for LNG Plant
We’ve been tracking a story since November about a new, smallish (but very important) LNG export plant coming to Bradford County, PA, to Wyalusing (see Big News! Marcellus LNG Export Plant Coming to Landlocked NEPA). In order to build the $800 million facility, a LOT of workers, and housing, will be needed.
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New Quebec Pipeline to Help Western Canada Export LNG
This is so cockamamie: Build a pipeline across the Canadian province of Quebec, a province that has outlawed fracking and shale drilling, in order to flow natural gas that IS fracked from shale thousands of miles away, so it can be exported from an LNG facility on Canada’s East Coast.
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US & Canada Become LNG Export “Powerhouse” – List of Projects
LNG (liquefied natural gas) is increasingly a critical part of the natural gas picture here in the U.S.–and in the Marcellus/Utica–as in exports of LNG. This year Dominion Energy’s Cove Point LNG export terminal in Maryland came online, and early next year Kinder Morgan’s Elba Island LNG export facility along the coast of Georgia is due to go online. Not only that, we now see a trend of setting up smaller LNG facilities inland, not situated along the coast, in places like northeastern Pennsylvania (see Big News! Marcellus LNG Export Plant Coming to Landlocked NEPA). But LNG export facilities don’t have to be located along the East Coast. Some of our Marcellus/Utica molecules are getting exported from places like Cheniere’s Sabine Pass facility in Louisiana. We spotted an excellent article that summarizes which LNG export operations in both the U.S. and in Canada are likely to go online by 2020, and which are still years away from getting built.
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Elba Island LNG Won’t be Fully Online Until “End of 2019”
Elba Island LNG, situated along the Georgia coastline near Savannah, was originally due to begin operations now, in the fourth quarter of 2018 (see Elba Island, Ga. LNG Export Startup Delayed to 4Q18). But in October Kinder Morgan, the builder and owner of the project, delayed the startup until first quarter of next year (see Elba Island, Ga. LNG Export Startup Delayed (Again) – Now 1Q19). Elba Island will be the second LNG export facility along the East Coast, after Cove Point in Maryland. As we previously noted, Elba is quite a bit smaller than Cove Point. Whereas Cove Point, which has been up and running since March, can take in and liquefy up to 3.5 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) of natural gas, Elba Island will be able to liquefy up to 350 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d)–just 10% of Cove Point’s capacity. In a post on the U.S. Energy Information Administration website yesterday, we learned that Elba will *begin* operation in early 2019, but it won’t be *fully* up to speed until the end of 2019.
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Philly OKs $60M Plan to Partner with Russian re LNG Export Plant
Russian native Boris Brevnov, a former Enron executive, and banker Charles Ryan, a Radnor native who was once chief country officer in Moscow for Deutsche Bank, have just landed themselves a sweetheart deal with Philadelphia Gas Works to build a small LNG plant that will export Marcellus gas. The Philadelphia Gas Commission voted to approve a deal yesterday with Liberty Energy Trust. We frankly have mixed emotions about the news. We’re glad to see another LNG export facility, this one in PA (albeit quite small), but unhappy that these particular people are the ones building and operating it. Yes, there’s a lot of history to cover in this story.
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