Page 9 - GLNG Week 09

GLNG AMERICAS GLNG
Sempra makes LNG progress
PROJECTS & COMPANIES
Train 2 at Cameron LNG has started commercial operations.
US-BASED Sempra Energy is making progress at both its existing Cameron LNG export project in Louisiana and its planned Port Arthur facility in Texas.
The company’s Sempra LNG subsidiary said this week that Train 2 at Cameron LNG had begun commercial operations. This follows the start-up of Train 1 at the facility in August 2019 after some delays during construction. The company said Train 3 remained on track to begin LNG production in the second quarter of 2020, and to start commercial operations in the third quarter.
Cameron LNG is jointly owned by affiliates of Sempra LNG, Total, Mitsui & Co. and Japan LNG Investment. Sempra indirectly owns 50.2% of the project. Sempra’s share of full-year run-rate earnings from Phase 1 of the project – encom- passing the first three trains – is anticipated to be $400-450mn per year starting in 2021.
Separately, Sempra also announced this week that it had selected engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) firm Bechtel as the contractor to build the Port Arthur LNG export terminal. The financial terms were not disclosed,
but the two companies described the EPC con- tract as fixed-price in a joint statement.
The Port Arthur project will initially consist of two liquefaction trains, two LNG storage tanks, a marine berth and associated loading facilities and related infrastructure necessary to provide liquefaction services. It will have a nameplate capacity of around 13.5mn tonnes per year (tpy) of LNG. There is potential to expand the project at a later date.
“Port Arthur LNG plays an important role in Sempra’s goal of becoming one of North Amer- ica’s largest developers of liquefaction-export infrastructure projects and we look forward to continuing to move the project forward,” said Sempra’s chairman and CEO, Jeffrey Martin.
The company still needs to make a final investment decision (FID) on Port Arthur LNG, but has already signed an interim offtake agree- ment with Saudi Aramco and a definitive one with Poland’s PGNiG.
Sempra’s announcements come days after Martin said that the coronavirus outbreak had not affected the company’s negotiations with would-be customers.™
ASIA
Chinese gas demand growth slows in January
PERFORMANCE
CHINA’S apparent consumption of natural gas climbed by 3.4% year on year in January to 29.65bn cubic metres, the National Devel- opment and Reform Commission (NDRC) announced on February 28.
Production of the fuel expanded by 8.4% y/y to 16.66 bcm, while imports of both liquefied natural gas (LNG) and piped gas shrank by 1.6% y/y to 13.35 bcm.
The decline in imports was driven by LNG buyers either declaring force majeure in their contracts or deferring deliveries in response to the spread of the coronavirus.
China National Offshore Oil Corp. (CNOOC), the country’s largest LNG importer, was reported in early February to have declared force majeure on prompt deliveries from at least three suppliers. PetroChina, meanwhile, was reportedly forced to delay discharge timings for multiple cargoes because it could not send enough workers to its Rudong, Dalian and Caofeidian LNG terminals to run them at full capacity.
Importers are anticipated to cut their imports of the super-chilled fuel in favour of pipeline imports owing to the latter’s price advantage.
Indeed, state-owned China National Petro- leum Corp. (CNPC) announced on March 2 that it had ramped up imports of Russian gas via the Power of Siberia pipeline since the duct opened on December 2, 2019. The state major said the
3,000-km pipeline had pumped 840mn cubic metres of gas between its start-up and February
25.
The pipeline is expected to deliver 4.6 bcm
this year, before ramping up to its full capacity of 38 bcm per year in 2025.
China’s demand for natural gas is widely predicted to slow this year, owing to far-reach- ing government efforts to slow the spread of the virus.
China’s infection rate appears to be slowing, with the government reporting 125 new con- firmed infections and 31 deaths in the preceding 24 hours on March 3. The figure for new infec- tions is the lowest since January 20. Achieving that reduction has required central and local governments to impose travel restrictions and municipal lockdowns.
More than 50mn people are reportedly still in quarantine in the central province of Hubei, ground zero for the virus. Schools are still closed and factories are expected to remain operating below full capacity until April.
The Shanghai and Beijing municipal gov- ernments, along with authorities in Guangdong Province, announced this week that travellers arriving from countries struggling with a coro- navirus outbreak would be quarantined for 14 days. Guangdong Province has announced sim- ilar measures.™
Week 09 05•March•2020 w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m P9