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Permalink Reply by CypressKnees on October 23, 2010 at 6:15

Dear Pipeliner,

I'm confused..the Al Khuwair boat is bringing LNG from__________TO the US and that LNG will be pipelined to Beauregard Parish?

Does that mean the U.S. is importing LNG to the major shale areas? I'm so dumb! Sorry!

OT: What happens if the thermos boat is in a fender-bender?

Thanks-

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Permalink Reply by Pipeliner on October 23, 2010 at 7:43

Cypressknees,

The LNG is coming from Qatar where it is a cost-free by-product from their processing plant. After they extract the natrual gas liguids and other profitable products, the natural gas costs them nothing, as they made their money from the extracted products at a profit. All they are out is the cost of cooling of it into LNG and the ocean shipping charges.

What they are doing with this load is cooling down and conditioning their tanks and pipelines. Any unneeded or surplus LNG will be heated back into a gaseous form and sent down their own take away pipeline to where it connects to the main East-West pipeline grid.They will sell this to other companies, where no doubt it will be used in that area, or the Beaumont or Houston area.

Their pipeline connects with the grid in Beauregard parish, which has its parish seat in DeRitter, which is out of the Haynesville Shale.

As far as to the safety factor of the carrier ship, there has been a lot of discussion on this. Some East Coast areas have denied permits for LNG plants on the precieved danger basis. From what I have read, I do not think any LNG carrier has been in an accident to date.

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Permalink Reply by Pipeliner on October 23, 2010 at 8:00

In more than 50 years of shipping, LNG carriers have traveled more than 100 million miles without a major incident.

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Permalink Reply by CypressKnees on October 23, 2010 at 8:42

Thank you Pipeliner for both posts! That is remarkable!

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Permalink Reply by jffree1 on October 23, 2010 at 6:23

Where's the part about "orphaned LNG" ?

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Permalink Reply by Pipeliner on October 23, 2010 at 6:42

That title is from the Wall Street Journal

BUSINESS OCTOBER 22, 2010 Shale Boom Orphans LNG

By ANGEL GONZALEZ
SABINE PASS, Texas—After billions of dollars spent on construction and a one-year delay caused by a storm, Golden Pass LNG received a long-awaited first shipment of super-chilled natural gas Thursday at its terminal near the Texas-Louisiana border.

But the massive load of liquefied natural gas hauled from Qatar by a 1,000-foot vessel may not find a warm reception in the U.S., which is brimming with a surplus of domestic gas.

The $2 billion terminal, a joint venture of Qatar Petroleum, Exxon Mobil Corp. and ConocoPhillips Co., was part of a massive buildup of natural-gas importing facilities in the middle of the decade as the U.S. economy boomed and its energy resources seemed close to exhaustion.

But the same scramble for energy prompted companies to seek out unconventional ways to produce oil and gas. That led to the exploitation of massive reserves of natural gas locked in underground rock formations, or shale, through a controversial technique called fracking.

Natural-gas prices have fallen from a high above $13 per million British thermal units in 2008 to below $4 per million BTUs in recent months.

Today, the billions spent on U.S. LNG import facilities by Exxon, Conoco, Total SA and some big industrial gas users such as Dow Chemical seems foolhardy. But few foresaw the impact of shale gas. What's more, the U.S. is one of the few markets that can readily absorb excess LNG, and energy companies see value in having a place to unload gas no one else wants.

Some companies, such as Cheniere Energy Inc., have thought about adding facilities to their terminals to liquefy domestic natural gas and export it. A company spokesman said there were no such plans for the Golden Pass terminal.

The turnabout shows how difficult it is to time energy investments. "That's why it's tough to be in the energy business," said David Pursell, an analyst with Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co.

Critics said the facilities pose security risks, and lengthy permitting was required. About 10 other U.S. terminals for LNG have been built.

Proponents of LNG say the same unpredictability that is undermining gas imports could make them necessary one day.

ExxonMobil says having options, including LNG, is essential to energy security. Exxon says LNG will likely return to demand because it is abundant and produces far fewer greenhouse gases than oil or coal.

Printed in The Wall Street Journal, page B1

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB20001424052702304023804575566570816...

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Permalink Reply by CypressKnees on October 23, 2010 at 6:58

What's more, the U.S. is one of the few markets that can readily absorb excess LNG, and energy companies see value in having a place to unload gas no one else wants.

So it's 'Coal to Newcastle"?

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Permalink Reply by ledlights on October 23, 2010 at 14:25

One of the ironies here is that the transportation and production of LNG significantly reduces the relative (to other fossil fuels) greenhouse benefits of using natural gas.

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Permalink Reply by CypressKnees on October 23, 2010 at 7:16

Dear Pipeliner,

Thank you so much for this much more lucidly written article. My poor brain needs lots of help. Also the other forum (?) that is going on about Peak oil/Peak gas really brought it together-thanks again!

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Permalink Reply by FXEF on October 23, 2010 at 13:21

The LNG coming to Sabine Pass and other terminals in the USA is driving down the price of Haynesville shale gas.

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Permalink Reply by CypressKnees on October 23, 2010 at 22:55

I'm so stupid that when I saw the posts about the Sabine Pass building I thought it was for Shale gas to be EX-ported!

You all are so smart, well informed, and if I may say so, FXEF, well red. (heh)

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Permalink Reply by jffree1 on October 24, 2010 at 4:25

"Some companies, such as Cheniere Energy Inc., have thought about adding facilities to their terminals to liquefy domestic natural gas and export it."

Chesapeake Energy wants to export LNG

By Oil & Gas Financial Journal staff

Mike Stice, senior vice president for natural gas projects at Oklahoma City-based Chesapeake Energy, would like to create new markets for the natural gas that is inundating the US, due in part to dramatically increased production in shale gas plays. Speaking to an audience of most investment analysts in Washington, DC on Oct. 13, Stice said he would like to see developers build liquefaction capabilities into their LNG import terminals along the Texas Gulf Coast.

“Every operator on the Gulf Coast has a liquefaction plan,” he said. “In the near term, if you get the right political wave, you can do it really quickly.” Stice said Chesapeake prefers not to invest directly in export-oriented liquefaction terminals, but would be willing to support such efforts by signing long-term gas supply contracts, probably tied at first to US Henry Hub index prices and then ultimately to LNG pricing within the Atlantic Basin.

Stice indicated that Chesapeake is “in very serious discussions” with regulators and has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with terminal developer and operator Cheniere Energy of Houston. Cheniere, which has proposed building liquefaction facilities at its import terminal in Sabine Pass, La., previously said that Chesapeake executives said they were willing to send as much as 500,000 Mcf/d of gas to the proposed facility.

Cheniere hopes to get regulatory approval by December of next year and hopes to begin constructing the facility by January 2012, with exports to begin in January 2015.

A second effort is centered on gas-to-liquids technology, Stice said. While he thinks it would take a technological breakthrough on the same scale as what shale gas has done for US gas, plus another five years, to get GTL operations up and running, eventually “GTL will be a reality in the US.”

Liquefying and exporting shale gas from shale plays like the Haynesville, Barnett, and Eagle Ford to global markets holds major promise as the US confronts an oversupply of cheap supplies, said analyst Rick Smead of Navigant Consulting.

“This is real. I think it’s going to happen,” he said at the US Energy Information Administration’s 2010-2011 winter fuels outlook conference in Washington, DC.

The US Department of Energy has approved Cheniere Energy’s application to export LNG from Sabine Pass to Free Trade Agreement countries but is still considering the firm’s request for authorization to export to other countries. The US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) would also have to sign off on the project.


http://www.pennenergy.com/index/petroleum/display/6421909998/articl...

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