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). Read More “Philadelphia LNG Export Plant One Vote Away from Happening”
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. Read More “One Step Closer: FERC OKs Feed Gas to Elba Island LNG”
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.
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. Read More “Nova Scotia Indians Shake Down a 2nd LNG Export Project”
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? Read More “Exxon Building New Gulf Coast LNG Export Plant, M-U to Feed”
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. Read More “Pieridae Energy Pays Off Nova Scotia Indians to Allow LNG Plant”
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. Read More “The Future of Ethane Exports from Marcus Hook, PA”
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. Read More “East Coast Dominates LPG Exports via Philly’s Marcus Hook”
Gazoduq pipeline approximate path (click for larger version)
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. Read More “New Quebec Pipeline to Help Western Canada Export LNG”
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. Read More “US & Canada Become LNG Export “Powerhouse” – List of Projects”
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. Read More “Elba Island LNG Won’t be Fully Online Until “End of 2019””
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. Read More “Philly OKs $60M Plan to Partner with Russian re LNG Export Plant”
Yesterday Kinder Morgan, one of (perhaps THE) country’s largest midstream company, issued guidance (their best guess) for how much money the company will make in 2019. Aimed at investors, of course. Usually these types of things are dry as toast, but we happened to notice the third sentence in the update which says Elba Island, Kinder’s LNG export facility on the coast of Georgia, along with the Gulf Coast Express pipeline project, will both enter service in 2019 and will help lead the company to record revenue–about 10% more revenue next year than was generated this year. Which got us to thinking once again about Elba Island, and the Marcellus molecules that will get exported from it. It also reminded us of a recent email exchange we had with a subscriber who swears that LNG shipments are already departing from the facility. Read More “Elba Island LNG Key for Kinder Morgan Profits in 2019”
In September, MDN told you that Philadelphia Gas Works (PGW), the country’s largest municipal-owned utility company, floated a plan to partner with a private company to build a new LNG export facility at its Passyunk Plant located in south Philly (see Phila. Gas Works Floats New Plan for LNG Export Facility). One of the first steps in making such a plan a reality is to run it by the PGW “consumer advocate”–an group appointed to be the voice of consumers as a check on decisions made by PGW management. The consumer advocate has just spoken–and likes the LNG plan! Read More “Phila. Gas Works Public Advocate Endorses LNG Export Plan”