LNG news

LNGNEWS

Mexico Mexico Operations commence at NFE’s LNG terminal

New Fortress Energy Inc. has announced that its LNG terminal in the port of Pichilingue, Baja California Sur, Mexico has begun commercial operations.

“The delivery of more affordable and cleaner-burning natural gas is a significant milestone for Baja California Sur,” said Wes Edens, Chairman and CEO of NFE. “Our facility will enable customers to significantly reduce emissions and costs by switching from oil-based fuels to natural gas.”

The introduction of natural gas into the Baja California Sur market will help enable more energy efficiency, cost savings, and emissions reductions as it displaces fossil fuels. It also provides opportunities for job creation; training of a new, more specialised workforce; economic development; and improved environmental management.

The terminal features NFE’s proprietary ISOFlex system, which allows larger LNG carrier vessels to transload LNG into ISO storage containers on offshore support vessels (OSVs) with a specialised manifold. These ISO storage containers can be easily offloaded at container ports and onto trucks, which enables the reduction of time, permitting requirements, and capital costs for the development of NFE’s terminals.

“We are proud to have deployed the first-of-a-kind ISOFlex system at our terminal in Baja California Sur,” said Sam Abdalla, Vice President of Project Development of NFE. “This is a big achievement for NFE and will enable us to deliver critical energy infrastructure and logistics solutions much more quickly and less expensively.”

Under the terms of an agreement signed in March, NFE will supply natural gas to the CTG La Paz and CTG Baja California Sur power plants in Baja California Sur through the terminal.

Canada Canada Construction of LNG Canada project reaches new milestone

Three towering pieces of equipment critical to the gas liquefaction process have arrived at the LNG Canada site in Kitimat, Canada, as construction activities progress through the project’s ‘going vertical’ stage.

Crews spent a week carefully offloading a 345 t main cryogenic heat exchanger (MCHE) and two precooler units, which weigh 308 t and 284 t respectively, from a cargo ship docked at the LNG Canada project’s new material offloading facility (MOF) in Kitimat Harbour.

The equipment was then placed on large, self-propelled modular transporters, which will slowly move the pieces along the project site’s new 3 km-long haul road to the main construction area in the coming days, where they will soon be connected to other pieces of LNG infrastructure.

The largest of the three new pieces of equipment, the MCHE is approximately 50 m in length. Once installed vertically, it will be among the most visible components at the LNG Canada facility.

It is the first of two MCHE units built by Linde plc for the LNG Canada project; the second MCHE is expected to arrive later this year, along with two more precoolers.

Often described as the ‘heart’ of an LNG facility, MCHEs are made to liquefy natural gas. Gas enters an MCHE near its base and exits at its top in a sub-cooled, liquefied state, at -160˚C. The liquefied gas is then piped to a storage tank, and from there it is loaded onto specialised carriers for ocean transport.

Precoolers are also integral to the process, increasing efficiencies during different stages of gas liquefaction. All three pieces of infrastructure are precision engineered from aluminium and are pressure tested prior to delivery.

Norway Norway Gasnor and Wintershall Dea sign LNG supply agreement

Gasnor and Wintershall Dea have entered into an agreement on LNG deliveries to supply vessels on the Norwegian shelf.

From the start, deliveries will go to Viking Princess, delivered from the LNG bunkering terminal at Mongstad Base.

When using LNG-powered supply vessels, the emissions associated with the supply services will be reduced by approximately 30%.

Viking Princess is equipped with technology that makes it possible to reduce CO2 emissions by up to 2400 tpy – corresponding to emissions from approximately 1200 cars.

The 90 m long and 21 wide vessel is equipped with dual fuel engines that can use both marine gasoil (MGO) and LNG as fuel, and also has a battery pack for efficient energy management.

LNGNEWS

USA USA Sempra LNG and PGNiG sign MoU

Sempra LNG has announced that it has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Polish Oil & Gas Company (PGNiG) for the potential purchase of approximately 2 million tpy of LNG from Sempra LNG’s portfolio of projects in North America. As part of the MoU, Sempra LNG and PGNiG are also working toward a framework for the reporting, mitigation and reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions throughout the LNG value chain.

“We look forward to continuing to work with PGNiG to help meet their energy objectives from our strategically positioned LNG facilities and development projects on the Gulf and Pacific Coasts of North America,” said Justin Bird, Chief Executive Officer of Sempra LNG. “As we look to extend our LNG business to include net-zero solutions, working with companies like PGNiG to advance best practices in GHG mitigation can build on the global environmental benefits of substituting higher-emission fuels with lower-carbon LNG while also continuing to drive down emissions in the US natural gas value chain.”

“We highly value our relationship with Sempra LNG and we are keen to continue it. The MoU allows for shifting the volumes originally contracted at Port Arthur LNG to other facilities from Sempra’s projects portfolio,” said Pawel Majewski, Chief Executive Officer of PGNiG SA. “We are also determined to curb the carbon footprint of fuels offered by PGNiG and are convinced that our co-operation with LNG producers like Sempra LNG will contribute to reach this goal most effectively.”

The MoU is non-binding and was completed in connection with the termination of the parties’ Sales and Purchase Agreement (SPA) signed in 2018 that provided for 2 million tpy of LNG supply to be delivered from the Port Arthur LNG project.

Sempra LNG owns a 50.2% interest in Cameron LNG, a 12 milllion tpy export facility operating in Hackberry, Louisiana, US, and is working with Cameron LNG on a proposed expansion of the facility through one additional liquefaction train with an offtake capacity of over 6 million tpy.

Sempra LNG is also developing additional LNG facilities and carbon sequestration infrastructure along the LNG value chain on the Gulf and Pacific Coasts of North America.

Kuwait Kuwait Qatargas delivers LNG to Al-Zour terminal

Qatargas Operating Company Ltd (Qatargas) delivered the first ever cargo of LNG on a Q-Flex LNG carrier to commission Al-Zour LNG receiving terminal in Kuwait in July 2021.

The cargo was loaded onboard the Qatargas-chartered LNG vessel, Al Kharsaah, at Ras Laffan on 9 July 2021 and delivered to Al-Zour LNG terminal, owned and operated by Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC), three days later.

Commenting on this milestone delivery, Khalid bin Khalifa Al Thani, Chief Executive Officer, Qatargas, said: “At Qatargas, we are honoured to have been able to supply the commissioning cargo to this landmark facility in co-operation with our strategic business partners at KPC. The successful commissioning of this LNG receiving terminal will contribute towards strengthening our business relations with KPC."

Al-Zour LNG terminal is set to be amongst the largest in the world by overall import capacity of 22 million tpy by 2022. Currently it is one of the world's largest capacity LNG storage and regasification green field projects.

The terminal consists of two jetty heads, capable of simultaneous discharging and has eight storage tanks, with a net volume capacity of 225 000 m3 for each tank, with an overall capacity of 1.8 million m3 for eight tanks.

THE LNG THE LNG ROUNDUP ROUNDUP

EIA: US sees record LNG export growth SLNG and Keppel to collaborate on gas project Shell delivers fi rst gas from

Barracuda Project

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LNGNEWS

Canada Canada Tourmaline and Cheniere Corpus Christi Stage III sign agreement

Cheniere Energy, Inc. announced that its subsidiary, Corpus Christi Liquefaction Stage III LLC, has entered into a long-term gas supply agreement (GSA) with Tourmaline Oil Marketing Corp., a subsidiary of Tourmaline Oil Corp.

Under the GSA, Tourmaline has agreed to sell 140 000 million Btu/d of natural gas to Corpus Christi Stage III for a term of 15 years beginning in early 2023. The LNG associated with this gas supply, approximately 0.85 million tpy, will be marketed by Cheniere. Cheniere will pay Tourmaline an LNG-linked price for its gas, based on the Platts Japan Korea Marker (JKM), after deductions for fixed LNG shipping costs and a fixed liquefaction fee. Tourmaline Oil Corp. is acting as guarantor of the GSA on behalf of Tourmaline. This Integrated Production Marketing (IPM) transaction is expected to support the development of the Corpus Christi Stage III project.

“This commercial agreement is expected to support our shovel-ready Corpus Christi Stage III project while enabling Canadian natural gas to reach international LNG markets" said Jack Fusco, Cheniere’s President and CEO.

The Corpus Christi Stage III project is being developed to include up to seven mid scale liquefaction trains with a total expected nominal production capacity of approximately 10 million tpy. It has received all necessary regulatory approvals.

Philippines Philippines Svitzer AMEA signs contract with FGEN LNG Corp.

Svitzer, a global towage provider and Maersk subsidiary, has announced that it has signed a 10 year time charter party with FGEN LNG Corp., a wholly-owned subsidiary of First Gen Corp., for the provision of towage and other vessel support services required by FGEN LNG’s Interim Offshore LNG Terminal. These will feature an FSRU that will be located at the First Gen Clean Energy Complex in Batangas City, the Philippines.

Svitzer will provide four new 75 t bollard pull tugboats to assist the FSRU and LNG carriers that will deliver LNG to it – for berthing, unberthing, navigation assistance – and provide other services including fire fighting, pollution control, port and vessel security services, pilot and boarding party transfer, and fender management.

Commenting on the contract win, Nicolai Vinther Friis, Managing Director for Svitzer AMEA, said: “We are truly pleased that FGEN LNG has chosen Svitzer as a trusted partner and provider of towage services for the FGEN LNG terminal in Batangas Bay. Our two companies share many of the same values and, at Svitzer, we look forward to collaborating with FGEN LNG on ensuring the energy security of the Philippines and to be part of the country’s green transition. This important contract adds a new country to the global Svitzer portfolio and expands our ability to provide safe and efficient towage and marine services support to more customers across the globe.”

Operations are planned to begin as early as 3Q22 and Svitzer will now take the first steps to set up operations in the Philippines, which will include hiring 72 seafarers and five onshore staff, all local Filipinos.

21 - 23 September 2021

Gastech Exhibition & Conference 2021

Dubai, UAE

www.gastechevent.com

21 - 22 October 2021 Downstream USA

Houston, USA

www.reutersevents.com/events/downstream 21 - 23 September 2021

Global Energy Show

Calgary, Canada

www.globalenergyshow.com

15 - 18 November 2021

ADIPEC

Abu Dhabi, UAE

www.adipec.com 04 - 06 October 2021

ILTA

Houston, USA

https://ilta2021.ilta.org

30 November - 03 December 2021

21st World LNG Summit & Awards Evening

Rome, Italy