Freeport Finally Resumes Loading Cargo Ships, Feedgas Increases
Finally, there is some good news regarding Freeport LNG restarting. Reuters reports that an LNG carrier left one of Freeport LNG’s berths over the weekend, carrying the facility’s first cargo since July 5. The report also says another carrier was filling up yesterday, and two more vessels were waiting near the port. However, the facility is still running at only about one-third of its rated capacity (one of three trains).
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Last November, Tellurian, a company founded by Charif Souki, filed a report with the Securities and Exchange Commission warning investors that its financial situation raised “substantial doubt” that the company could continue as a going concern (see 
Freeport LNG, by all accounts, continues to be offline. It was supposed to restart one of its three “trains” (liquefaction units) last week (see 
In November 2022, all five members of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), including three Democrats, voted to approve an order allowing the proposed Commonwealth LNG export plant on the Calcasieu River in the Gulf of Mexico near Cameron, Louisiana to get built (see 
The liquefied natural gas (LNG) trade increased 3.1% globally in 2023 to an average of 52.9 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d), an increase of 1.6 Bcf/d from 2022, according to a recently released report from the International Group of Liquefied Natural Gas Importers (GIIGNL). Expanded export and import capacity and increasing natural gas demand drove the growth in the global LNG trade last year.
We began our headline with the word “Surprise!” because, well, nobody is surprised that Freeport LNG is, once again, down. That has been the theme since it began to operate. We’ve tracked the up down up down up down situation at Freeport LNG since it came online in 2019. Freeport was mostly offline this year following an episode of cold temps in January (see 
In January, Joementia announced he would “pause” any approvals for new LNG export plants (currently 17 requests in the pipeline) for at least one year while his people fart around pretending to figure out how to measure global warming as a new consideration for whether or not to approve such projects (see 
On Wednesday, the International Gas Union (IGU) released its 15th annual 2024 World LNG Report, the world’s most comprehensive public source of information on key developments and trends in the LNG sector (full copy below). According to the report, the global liquefied natural gas (LNG) market has a newfound but fragile equilibrium. The global LNG trade reached a record level of 401.42 million metric tons in 2023, growing by 2.1% or 8.4 million tons from the previous year. However, the pace of growth decreased last year over the previous year. Why? Not enough LNG supply to meet worldwide demand.
Yesterday, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued a decision to approve Venture Global’s plan to build a second Calcasieu Pass LNG export plant called CP2 LNG. The vote was 2 to 1, with a predictable negative vote by the outgoing Allison Clements (former attorney for the radicalized organization National Resources Defense Council). Venture Global’s existing Calcasieu Pass LNG facility can liquefy and export 10 million metric tonnes per annum (MTPA) of LNG. The CP2 project will be twice as large and will be able to export 20 MTPA (with a peak capacity of approximately 24 MTPA). Huge! But there’s a problem…
The Sabine Pass LNG terminal, owned and operated by Cheniere Energy, is spread over an 853-acre site in Cameron Parish, Louisiana. The facility is the largest LNG terminal in the world, with a total send-out capacity of 4.1 Bcf/d (billion cubic feet per day) and a storage capacity of 16.8 Bcf. The facility’s “nameplate” capacity, with six trains operating, is roughly 30 mtpa (million tons per annum). Around 330 MMcf/d (million cubic feet per day) of M-U molecules flow to the Sabine Pass facility, getting there by various interstate pipelines. Last Friday, flows to the facility dropped to 3.4 Bcf/d.
For those (like the dunce who heads up the Dept. of Energy, Jennifer Granholm) who say Uncle Joe’s “pause” on authorizing new LNG export requests isn’t having an impact, how do you respond to this?… Russia has overtaken the United States as the top exporter of natural gas to Europe. Why? Because the Europeans are scared to death they will run out of natgas promised by the U.S. Biden’s pause on new export authorizations has Europe scrambling to ensure their citizens don’t freeze to death next winter.
Venture Global has been screwing its contracted customers by denying LNG shipments to them from its Calcasieu Pass (CP) LNG export facility for over two years, instead shipping over 200 cargoes to other buyers (at higher prices) rather than honoring its contracts. So why in the world would ANYONE sign a new deal with Venture Global for LNG shipments, given the company’s history of screwing its contracted customers? As Phineas Taylor Barnum is reputed to have said, “There’s a sucker born every minute.” This time, it’s DTEK Group of Ukraine.