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USA: Magnolia LNG Wins DOE Approval for FTA Exports
Liquefied Natural Gas Limited said that the Office of Fossil Energy of the Department of Energy (DOE), United States, has granted authorisation for Magnolia LNG to export up to 4 mpta of LNG, from its proposed LNG project site at the Port of Lake Charles, Louisiana.
The DOE authorisation is valid for LNG sales to commence within 10 years and is then for a period of 25 years from first LNG sales; which sales are permitted to all existing, and any future, countries that have, or enter into, a Free Trade Agreement with the Government of the United States.
The Magnolia LNG Project comprises the proposed development of an 8 mtpa LNG project on a 90 acres site, in an established LNG shipping channel in the La ke Charles District. The project is based on two 4 mtpa development phases, each phase comprising 2 x 2 mtpa LNG production trains, and will use the Company’s wholly owned OSMR ® LNG process technology.
The DOE authorisation, follows the Company’s recent si gning of a Site Option to Lease Term Sheet, with the Lake Charles Harbour & Terminal District (Port Authority. The Company is now:
- Negotiating a definitive and binding Real Estate Le ase Option Agreement with the Port Authority, together with the agreed form of Lease to be executed on Magnolia LNG, LLC exercising the site Lease Option;
- In discussion with a number of parties who have expr essed interest to enter in to a Tolling Agreement, under which the Tolling Party will be responsible for arranging gas suppl y to the Magnolia LNG Project and the LNG buyers and ships. The Magnolia LNG Project will treat and liquefy the gas, store the produced LNG and load the LNG onto the LNG buyer’s ships, in consideration of a Capacity Fee and Processing Fee; and
- Progressing work on the Magnolia LNG Project’s Pre File Application, which is required to be submitted to the Federal Energy Regulatory Co mmittee and represents the commencement of the project’s required permits and approvals process.
Managing Director Maurice Brand said “We are very pleased that the DOE authorisation had been received in accordance with the Company’s developmen t schedule. Our ability to meet key milestones will be a critical factor in discussions with potential Tolling Parties.”
USA: Magnolia LNG Wins DOE Approval for FTA Exports LNG World News.
Corpus Christi, TX: Pangea Receives Permission to Export LNG
The U.S. Department of Energy has granted Pangea LNG Holdings, LLC, long-term, multi-contract authorization to export liquefied natural gas (LNG) to free trade agreement (FTA) nations from its South Texas LNG Project currently in development on Corpus Christi Bay.
Pangea LNG will be authorized to export up to 8 million metric tons per annum (mtpa) of LNG produced from domestic gas fields for a 25-year term commencing on the date of its first export. That amount is equal to 1.09 Bcf/day of natural gas.
Pangea LNG has also filed an application with DOE requesting authorization to export LNG to any country with which the U.S. does not have a free trade agreement in effect. That application, which was filed in December, is pending.
“Approval by the US DOE is a positive step forward for this project, which represents a significant investment in the development of the LNG market in the U.S.,” said John Godbold, Pangea LNG project director. “Exporting LNG will help stabilize U.S. natural gas prices, grow and sustain drilling and production jobs, and stimulate additional investment in developing the country’s gas reserves.”
DOE approval of FTA authorization is part of the regulatory process necessary to develop Pangea LNG’s new LNG export terminal on a 550-acre site. The site is located on the 45-foot deep La Quinta Ship Channel which is part of the Port of Corpus Christi, the sixth busiest U.S. seaport in terms of tonnage.
The South Texas LNG Project is subject to federal, state and local regulatory approvals with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) acting as the lead federal agency. Pangea will begin the FERC pre-filing process by the second quarter of 2013 and expects the project to be in operation by at least 2018.
FTA countries covered by the DOE authorization include Republic of Korea, Australia, Bahrain, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Jordan, Mexico, Morocco, Nicaragua, Oman, Panama, Peru and Singapore.
Pangea LNG B.V. is a holding company with two major LNG export projects under development – the South Texas LNG Export Project on the Texas Gulf Coast and the Tamar Project in the Eastern Mediterranean. Pangea LNG is a developer of liquefaction projects which are designed to accelerate and support the monetization of gas reserves.
USA: Pangea Receives Permission to Export LNG LNG World News.
Corpus Christi, Texas: APGA Files Motion in Opposition to Cheniere LNG Export Application
APGA filed a motion to intervene and protest in response to the application by Cheniere Marketing, LLC to export approximately 2.1 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/day) of LNG from the proposed Corpus Christi Liquefaction Project to any country that the United States does not have a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with.
To date, 20 applications have been filed at the Department of Energy (DOE) to export 28.67 Bcf/day of LNG to FTA countries. This equates to approximately 45 percent of our daily consumption. APGA members unanimously approved a resolution to oppose the export of LNG at the 2011 APGA Annual Conference.
In its filing APGA states that “proposed exports from Corpus Christi, Texas will increase domestic natural gas prices, burdening households and jeopardizing potential growth in the manufacturing sector, as well as the transition away from more environmentally damaging fossil fuels.” APGA’s comments also respond to a recently released DOE commissioned study on the macroeconomic impacts of LNG exports from the United States. Specifically, the comments state that although the study communicated that LNG exports will result in net economic benefits.
It also concluded that the higher the volume of LNG exports, the more domestic natural gas prices will rise. APGA’s filing concludes that “Cheniere’s proposal to export domestic LNG to non-FTA nations is inconsistent with the public interest because it will increase domestic natural gas and electricity prices to the detriment of all consumers, inhibit this nation’s ability to forge a path toward energy independence, and undermine sustained economic growth in key manufacturing sectors.”
USA: APGA Files Motion in Opposition to Cheniere LNG Export Application LNG World News.
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USA: ELS Files to Export LNG to Non-FTA Nations
Excelerate Liquefaction Solutions (ELS), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Excelerate Energy, has filed an application at the U.S. DOE to export up to 10 MTPA (approximately 1.33 Bcf/d) for a 20-year period.
ELS is seeking authorization to export LNG from the proposed Excelerate Liquefaction Project to be located in Calhoun County, Texas to any country with which the United States of America does not now, or during the term of the license requested will not, have a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) requiring the national treatment for trade in natural gas; that has, or in the future develops, the capacity to import LNG; and with which trade is not prohibited by U.S. law or policy.
This application represents the second part of ELS’s two-part export authorization request. On May 25, 2012, ELS filed in DOE/FE Docket No. 12-61-LNG its application requesting long-term, multi-contract authorization to export up to 10 MTPA of domestically produced LNG for a 20-year period commencing the earlier of the date of first export or seven years from the date authorization is granted by DOE/FE.
ELS requested that such long-term authorization provide for export to any country with which the U.S. currently has, or in the future may enter into, a FTA requiring national treatment for trade in natural gas, and which has, or in the future develops, the capacity to import LNG.
ELS requested authorization to export LNG on its own behalf and also as agent for other parties who hold title to the LNG at the time of export. DOE/FE granted this authorization to ELS in Order No. 3128.
If, in addition, this application for authorization to export to non-FTA Countries is granted, the combined effect of the DOE/FE Order addressing this Application and Order No. 3128 will be to authorize ELS to export up to 10 MPTA (equivalent to approximately 1.33 Bcf/d or approximately 502 million MMBtu per year) of domestic natural gas as LNG to any country with which trade is not prohibited by U.S. law or policy.
As such, grant of this application would not increase the total amount of natural gas that ELS would be entitled to export, it would only broaden the range of countries to which such natural gas could be exported.
USA: ELS Files to Export LNG to Non-FTA Nations LNG World News.
- Trouble in China for U.S. LNG Exports? (investorplace.com)
Golden Pass Products Wins Approval from U.S. DOE to Export LNG
Golden Pass Products said it has received authorization from the United States Department of Energy to export domestically produced natural gas as liquefied natural gas from the Golden Pass LNG terminal in Sabine Pass, Texas, to nations that have existing Free Trade Agreements (FTA) with the U.S.
The proposed project involves construction of natural gas liquefaction and export capabilities at the existing Golden Pass LNG facility. If developed, the project would represent approximately $10 billion of investment on the U.S. Gulf Coast, generating billions of dollars of economic growth at local, state and national levels and millions of dollars in taxes to local, state and federal governments. The project would generate approximately 9,000 construction jobs over five years with peak construction employment reaching about 3,000 jobs.
The proposed project would have the capacity to send out approximately 15.6 million tons of LNG per year. New infrastructure required to export will be located on the existing property, which contains two berths for LNG tankers, five storage tanks and access to the Golden Pass pipeline. The expanded facility would then have the capability and flexibility to both import and export natural gas.
As noted in the FTA application, Golden Pass also plans to submit an application to export LNG to non-FTA nations. A final investment decision will be made following government and regulatory approvals and will be based on a range of factors.
Golden Pass Products Wins Approval from U.S. DOE to Export LNG LNG World News.
USA: Western States Lawmakers Call for Quicker Approval of LNG Export Applications
The Center for LNG praised a bipartisan group of 16 House Members who called for an expedited review process for applications to export liquefied natural gas (LNG).
The legislators – all representing districts in the western region of the United States – sent the letter to Steven Chu, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), where all LNG export applications must be reviewed.
Led by Reps. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) and Jim Matheson (D-Utah), the lawmakers noted that “Creating more opportunities to sell natural gas into global markets and access overseas customers could help the goals of increasing natural gas use and smooth out historical boom-bust cycles. Realizing sustainable natural gas prices will continue to stimulate the resurgence of U.S. manufacturing, power generation, chemical and agriculture sectors, as well as continue to keep costs low to heat our homes and fuel our nation’s transportation needs.”
The Center for LNG, a trade group representing the LNG industry, agreed with the lawmakers.
“Restarting the permitting process for LNG facilities would give the United States a unique opportunity to generate more public revenues, increase investment in the U.S. economy, create new jobs, and reduce our trade deficit,” said Center for LNG president Bill Cooper. “Promoting exports is a longstanding policy in the United States, including the President’s National Export Initiative, which is designed to create jobs by doubling U.S. exports by 2015.”
Yesterday’s letter follows a similar effort from earlier this summer, when a bipartisan group of 44 House lawmakers from Texas and Louisiana also wrote to DOE to encourage an expedited review of LNG facilities, bringing the total number of House Members supporting expedited approval to 82.
“This is yet another indication that Americans are ready to get back to work. Approving LNG export facilities would be a significant source of new jobs and will help re-grow our struggling economy,” Cooper added.
Three Democrats and 13 Republicans representing the states of Arizona, California, Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming all signed the letter.
Western States Lawmakers Call for Quicker Approval of LNG Export Applications, USA LNG World News.
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Oil Forever!
By Alan Caruba
I suspect that most people think the Earth is running out of oil or that the U.S. and the rest of the world are “addicted” to its use.
Both beliefs are wrong, but in different ways. First because the Earth produces oil in abundance deep within its mantel in ways that have nothing to do with dead dinosaurs and gives no indication of ever stopping this natural process and, second, because the use of oil for fuel and for thousands of other applications, not the least of which is plastics, is one of the great blessings of modern technology and life.
All this is made dazzlingly clear in Dr. Jerome R. Corsi’s new book, “The Great Oil Conspiracy” ($22.95, Skyhorse Publishing). By way of explaining why there is so much oil within the planet Dr. Corsi tells the story of the Nazi regimes development of synthetic oil after German scientists “cracked the code God built into the heart of chemistry to form hydrocarbons in the first place.” Known as the “Fischer-Tropsch” process, it permitted the Nazis to pursue war even though Germany had no oil fields of its own.
The widespread use of the term “fossil fuels” is a deception created by anti-energy propagandists and earlier theorists to make people believe that oil is the result of countless dead dinosaurs and decaying vegetation. Oil, however, is “abiotic”, a term that means it is a natural product of the earth itself “manufactured at deep levels where there never were any plants or animals.”
Corsi writes of Thomas Gold, a professor of astronomy who taught at Cornell University. In 1998 he published a controversial book entitled “The Deep Hot Biosphere: The Myth of Fossil Fuels” in which he applied his knowledge of the solar system, noting that carbon is the fourth more abundant element in the universe, right after hydrogen, helium, and oxygen. Gold pointed out that “carbon is found mostly in compounds with hydrogen—hydrocarbons—which, at different temperatures and pressures, may be gaseous, liquid, or solid.”
Gold, who passed away in 2004, was way ahead of most other scientists with his assertion that the earth produces oil at very deep levels. While telling the story of how the U.S. went to great lengths to acquire the data regarding synthetic oil production as our military overran Germany and then took care not to let the public know about. It was, after all, our own oil industry that had provided the fuel that aided the war effort in both theatres.
Correspondingly, the oil industry had no reason to develop “relatively expensive synthetic oil when billions of dollars in profits could be made annually bringing to market naturally produced and reasonably priced hydrocarbon fuels, including crude oil and natural gas.”
This mirrors the efforts of “renewable” energy producers, wind, solar, and biofuels like ethanol, to profit at the cost of billions of dollars in subsidies and loan guarantees paid for by taxpayers along with higher electricity and gasoline bills paid for by consumers; all of which are mandated by the federal government. It is pure crony capitalism to enrich a few at the expense of all the rest of us. None of these alternative forms of power could exist or even compete without such government mandated support.
As Dr. Corsi points out, “Eliminating the fear that the world is running out of oil eliminates an urgency to experiment with or to implement alternative fuels including biofuels, wind energy, and solar energy as long as these energies remain less energy-efficient, less reliable, and more costly than using oil and natural gas.”
There are, in fact, “more proven petroleum reserves than ever before, despite the increasing rate at which we are consuming petroleum products worldwide” says Dr. Corsi, noting that the Energy Information Administration of the U.S. Department of Energy, in on record that “there are more proven crude oil reserves worldwide than ever in recorded history, despite the fact that worldwide consumption of crude oil has doubled since the 1970s.”
So tell me why, since the Obama administration took over, have gas prices per gallon risen from $1.84 to $3.80 now, a rise of 105%? The American Energy Alliance compared costs between 2009 and 2012, publishing them to reveal that we are all paying more for energy. The average monthly residential electricity bill has increased 6% and annual household energy expenses have increased 31%.
At the same time, the Obama Department of Energy increased new rules whose implementation cost more than $100 million each 141%! The Environmental Protection Agency increase of such regulations increased 40%, the Department of the Interior, 13%.
Total regulatory costs (all sectors) went from $1,172 trillion in 2009 to $1,752 trillion today! If you were trying to bankrupt the energy sector and its consumers, this is a great way to do it.
You can access the AEA chart at: Click Here
The Obama administration came into office declaring a war on coal, further restricting oil and natural gas exploration on federal lands and offshore, and wasting billions on solar, wind, and biofuel companies. That in itself would be reason enough to turn them out of office.
The Earth is not running out of oil and likely never will.
© Alan Caruba, 2012
Related articles
- Corsi to explain ‘Great Oil Conspiracy’ (wnd.com)
- Oil Forever! (canadafreepress.com)
- U.S. getting closer to energy independence (kansascity.com)
Obama Politics: Gas-Export Study Delay Puts U.S. Projects in Limbo for This Year
The Energy Department’s delay in releasing a report on liquefied natural-gas exports puts in limbo for this year as many as 12 applications including projects backed by Dominion Resources Inc. and Sempra Energy. (SRE)
The department commissioned the study last year to assess the economic impact of exports on domestic energy use after granting Cheniere Energy Inc. (LNG) permission to ship gas from Louisiana. It said future permits won’t be issued until the study is completed.
The first part of the study is complete, and a second portion was scheduled to come out in the first quarter. That date was pushed back to late in the U.S. summer, which ends Sept. 22. A posting on the department website now says it will be “complete by the end of the year.”
“It is really unfortunate, but I don’t think anything happens until we see the results of that report,” said Bill Cooper, president of the Center for Liquefied Natural Gas, which advocates for gas shipments. The Washington-based group includes LNG producers, shippers and terminal operators.
“None of the applicants, I’m certain, want to see a delay in the regulatory process,” Cooper said in an interview.
The study was started after lawmakers led by Representative Edward Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat, and Senator Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, said overseas sales might increase domestic energy prices.
The delay probably will push release of the Energy Department’s report until after the election in November.
‘Complicated Analysis’
“This is a complicated economic analysis assessing a dynamic market,” Jen Stutsman, an Energy Department spokeswoman, said in an e-mail. “We take our responsibility to issue these determinations seriously and want to make sure the necessary time is taken to get it right.”
Investors including Sempra Energy in partnership with Mitsubishi Corp. and Mitsui & Co. Ltd., Freeport LNG with Macquarie Group Ltd., and Dominion Resources, have applied for approvals from the Energy Department.
U.S. permits are required to sell gas to countries that aren’t free-trade partners with the U.S., a group that includes Japan and Spain.
As natural-gas prices soared in the last decade, energy companies sought permission to build import terminals. Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, for natural gas has opened access to reserves that previously couldn’t be produced economically, driving prices to a decade low and letting companies shift gears and seek overseas buyers for the fuel.
In fracking, oil and gas companies shoot a mixture of water, sand and chemicals underground to crack shale rock formations and free fossil fuels trapped inside.
To contact the reporter on this story: Jim Snyder in Washington at jsnyder24@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Jon Morgan at jmorgan97@bloomberg.net
Related articles
- Energy Department delays release of LNG export report (news.terra.com)
- Obama’s delay leaves LNG exports on hold though election (bizjournals.com)
- Politics are causing LNG export delays, attorney says (fuelfix.com)
- Freeport LNG inks deal to sell natural gas to Japanese utilities (fuelfix.com)
- U.S. Expected to Approve Expanded LNG Exports to Japan (mb50.wordpress.com)
- USA: Main Pass Energy Hub Files for LNG Export Licence (mb50.wordpress.com)
Continents of the World
Mb50's "Liquid Mud" Rant 