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Perry to step down as US Energy Secretary
US
News of the resignation comes after Perry attracted scrutiny for the part he played in Trump’s controversial dealings with Ukraine.
US President Donald Trump confirmed last week that Secretary of Energy Rick Perry will step down at the end of the year. News of the resignation comes after Perry attracted scrutiny for the part he played in Trump’s controversial dealings with Ukraine, which are at the centre of a Congressional impeachment inquiry.
Trump is reported to have blamed Perry ear- lier this month for the phone call with Ukrain- ian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. During the call, Trump urged his Ukrainian counterpart to investigate his potential political rival Joe Biden – formerly US vice-president under Barack Obama – and his son. According to an Axios report from earlier this month, Trump said he only made the call because Perry urged him to do so.
Perry, however, says he wanted Trump and Zelenskiy to discuss strengthening energy busi- ness ties between the two countries. “As God is my witness, not once was a Biden name – not the former vice-president, not his son – ever men- tioned,” Perry told the Christian Broadcasting Network,
Congressional Democrats issued Perry a subpoena on October 10, seeking documents
and communications connected to a May trip to Ukraine and a series of other events related to the inquiry. However, a week later it was reported that Perry was refusing to comply with the subpoena.
Trump said on October 18 that he would nominate Deputy Energy Secretary Dan Brouil- lette to lead the Department of Energy (DoE) after Perry steps down.
“Rick was a great Governor of Texas and a great Secretary of Energy ... He is also my friend!” Trump tweeted “At the same time, I am pleased to nominate Deputy Secretary Dan Brouillette to be the new Secretary of Energy. Dan’s experience in the sector is unparalleled. A total professional, I have no doubt that Dan will do a great job!”
Perry had already been preparing Brouillette to succeed him for months while planning his own departure. In recent months, Brouillette has more frequently served as the public face of the DoE both on missions abroad and at US events.
Brouillette’s energy policy is expected to follow the same trajectory as that of Perry, who has been a vocal supporter of the oil and gas industry.
PROJECTS & COMPANIES
All Elba Island units to be in service by mid-2020
GEORGIA
KINDER Morgan has said it expects all units at its Elba Island LNG export terminal – which was reported to have entered commercial service last week after several delays – are due to be opera- tional by the first half of 2020.
The 2.5mn tonne per year (tpy) Elba Island facility in Georgia, in the south-eastern US, com- prises 10 units, each with a capacity of 0.25mn tpy. Its design is markedly different from the mega-projects coming online on the Gulf Coast, where a single train at an export termi- nal can have a capacity of 5mn tpy. Royal Dutch Shell’s Moveable Modular Liquefaction System (MMLS) small-scale LNG technology has been implemented at Elba Island. Shell is also the sole offtaker for the project, and has a contract to buy its output over a 20-year period.
One unit was reported to have been brought into service last week, and Kinder Morgan’s CEO, Steven Kean, said on an October 16 earn- ings call that three more units would come online this year. The other six are anticipated to
start up in the first half of next year.
Kean described the periodic delays during
the plant’s commissioning process since late last year as being “a drag on our financial perfor- mance”. Kinder Morgan’s chief financial officer, David Michaels, said the company expected to end 2019 with adjusted pre-tax earnings 3% below its budget, with the delays contributing to this.
Kinder Morgan also recently brought the Gulf Coast Express pipeline online. The pipeline carries gas from the Permian Basin to the Gulf Coast, where it can be used as feedstock for LNG terminals, among other uses. Kinder Morgan is developing another pipeline of the same capac- ity – the Permian Highway project. But Kean said commercial activity to develop the project had slowed and the company still needed to obtain certain regulatory approvals. As a result, the pipeline is now predicted to start up in early 2021, instead of the fourth quarter of 2020 as previously anticipated.
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