Exporting

Economics, in its purest form, is unforgiving. Economics is science, like the laws of gravity. In a market (in this case, the world market) where there is too much supply for existing demand, the seller/supplier will end up lowering the price charged for the good or service. Others in the market are willing to drop prices to attract scarce customers, which turns into a race to the bottom. Such is what’s happening right now with LNG cargo carriers. A flood of new carriers has recently been added to the world’s supply. Because of the Biden-Harris “pause” on new LNG export approvals (and other factors), LNG exports have not expanded at the same rate as available cargo vessels. The result is that the bottom has dropped out of how much it costs to rent an LNG carrier. The rates are down 87% in the Atlantic and 78% in the Pacific from year-ago levels and are the weakest since at least 2019. Read More “Lease Rates for LNG Cargo Ships Hit 5-Year Lows; Too Many Ships”

Flex LNG, headquartered in Hamilton, Bermuda, owns 13 LNG cargo carriers, including the Flex Artemis (pictured at the left). The company published its latest presentation (PowerPoint slide deck) two days ago to coincide with CFO Knut Traaholt’s upcoming meetings with investors in the U.S. and Canada as part of a “non-deal roadshow.” Flex’s fleet is small compared with others (not even in the top 10 list). However, the slide deck includes some great slides that give us an inside look at the coming growth in American LNG exports and details about which countries are likely to buy increased supplies of LNG. Read More “LNG Shipping Co. Flex LNG Does Roadshow with Interesting Slides”

Simply amazing. In August, we told you that most of Venture Global’s contracted customers for LNG from the company’s Calcasieu Pass LNG export facility in southwestern Louisiana’s Cameron Parish had filed for arbitration over Venture Global’s refusal to sell them cargoes under contract (see Shell, Edison, BP File for Arbitration Against Venture Global LNG). Instead, Venture Global is selling its cargoes on the open “spot” market at higher prices, violating its agreement with its customers. In that August story, we told you that Italian company Edison SpA had brought a similar action back in May. Now comes word from Edison that Venture Global says it won’t deliver any contracted LNG until April 2025. Read More “Edison Says Venture Global Won’t Honor LNG Contract Until April 2025”

Venture Global’s Plaquemines LNG export facility (Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana) has consistently received small gas deliveries since mid-September from an interconnect with the Texas Eastern Transmission Company (TETCO) pipeline. However, the 2.6 Bcf/d Plaquemines terminal has not yet begun to produce its first LNG. Gas deliveries will increase this fall as commissioning activities ramp up. The question is, will Venture Global screw its Plaquemines contracted customers the way it has its Calcasieu Pass customers? Read More “Feedgas Flows to Venture Global’s Plaquemines LNG Plant, No LNG Yet”

In January, the Biden-Harris Department of Energy (DOE) announced it would “pause” any approvals for new LNG export plants (currently 17 requests in the pipeline) for at least one year while D.C. swampies fart around pretending to figure out how to measure global warming as a new consideration for whether or not to approve such projects (see White House Makes it Official – Biden Declares War on LNG Exports). It was a purely political move aimed at currying favor with the radical left. Now comes word of a bombshell revelation: The DOE appears to either have completed such a study or was deep in the throes of such a study before the “pause” was initiated. The Biden-Harris politi-droids deep-sixed the earlier study because they disliked what it showed them. Yes, it’s a coverup. Read More “Biden-Harris DOE Covering Up Study Conducted Before LNG “Pause””

MDN previously told you that gas flows (called “feedgas”) heading to the Cove Point LNG export facility along the coast of Maryland had fallen to zero as of Sept. 20 because the facility is undergoing annual maintenance (see Flows Drop to Zero @ Cove Point LNG, Closed for Annual Maintenance). Maintenance will likely last about three weeks at Cove Point. Flows to Venture Global’s not-commercially-ready but still producing LNG like crazy plant in Calcasieu Pass (in Louisiana) were down last week. Plus, a brief electricity outage at Elba Island (in Georgia) due to Hurricane Helene caused a temporary decrease in feedgas there. All of those factors combined to lower LNG feedgas flows last week. Read More “U.S. LNG Feedgas Dropped Last Week Due to Maintenance & Hurricane”