LNG JOURNAL PUBLICATION 24 April 2018

LNG Unlimited

BHP Billiton, the Australian com-modities company with petroleumand natural gas assets, includingLNG stakes in Western Australia,said it was continuing the exit pro-cess for its onshore US assets inkey shale basins of the southwestand expected to receive bids inthe months ahead.

“We expect to receive bids byJune 2018 and proceed with nego-tiations to potentially announceone or several transactions in thefirst half of the 2019 financialyear,” said BHP in its nine-monthoperational review to March 2018.

Data room“Data rooms for all fields and mid-stream assets are now open and inparallel, we continue to explorepotential asset swap opportunitiesand exit via demerger or an InitialPublic Offering,” explained theAustralian company.

BHP holds around 838,000 netacres in four prolific US shaleareas of the Eagle Ford, Permian,Haynesville and Fayetteville.

It has natural gas-focused assets in the Haynesville andFayetteville shale plays of Texas,Louisiana and Arkansas.

The Australian company alsohas wells in the liquids-focusedareas of the Eagle Ford and Per-mian basins. In total, the US shaleassets could be worth at leastUS$10 billion.

BHP is also a joint venture par-ticipant in the oldest AustralianLNG facility, the North West Shelfplant, located 125 kilometres

northwest of the port of Dampierin Western Australia and whichcame on stream in 1989.

It is currently investing in theNorth West Shelf Greater WesternFlank-B project to maintain pro-duction with additional feed-gasthroughput from which it has aone-sixth share.

BHP said the North West Shelfextension project was on scheduleand budge and was 80 percentcomplete.

In another LNG production-linked move, BHP Billiton in March2018 agreed to waive its right ofpre-emption and provide consentto the sale by ExxonMobil of its 50percent interest in the Scarbor-ough gas field to Australia’s Wood-side Petroleum.

This results in Woodside andBHP holding 75 percent and 25percent interests respectively andthe Scarborough field will underpinWoodside’s Pluto LNG expansion.

“BHP has an option to purchasean additional 10 percent interestin Scarborough on equivalent con-sideration and terms to the trans-action with ExxonMobil,” said BHP.

“This option may be exercisedat any time prior to the earlier of

31 December 2019 and the dateapproval is given to commence thefront-end engineering and designphase of the development of theScarborough gas field,” added thecompany.

BHP said that its onshore US de-velopment activity in the key shalebasins of the southwest for thenine months ended March 2018 wasUS$648M, though its operated rigcount declined from nine to seven.

In the Permian Basin, BHP saidit continued to see strong resultsfrom larger completions.

The Permian Basin is one of thelargest US oil and gas areas span-ning West Texas and the southeastof the US state of New Mexico.

“We expect rig count to remainunchanged through the June 2018quarter as we focus on meetinghold by production obligations andprogressing sub-surface trials,”said BHP.

The Australian company saidthat in the Eagle Ford shale inSouth Texas, early trial results fromwells with longer laterals in theHawkville have exceeded expecta-tions and early results in the AustinChalk horizon have been positive.

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Feed-gas from some BHP assets will be LNG exports

Commodities and

mining group holds

around 838,000 net

acres in four basins

LNG Journal editor

UNLIMITEDAGENDA

Oil Search of PNGopens Japanoffice for salesof LNG volumes

3

MARKETING

DEVELOPMENTS

SHIPPING

Golar LNG signs finance accord for import and gas-fired project in Brazil

6

Lloyd's Registerand Chinese yardprogress ballast-freeLNG carrier plans

5

US LNG data shows Mexico leads table of top 10 importers

7

TRADING

EARNINGS

PROJECTS

Lake Charles export venture in Louisiana extends buildingstart-up to 2019

9

Australia’s BHP advances $10Bln sale of US southwest shale assets

Woodside recordsrevenue surgehelped by highLNG export prices

2

Woodside Petroleum, the largestAustralian LNG plant operator andstakeholder, posted an increase infirst-quarter sales revenue ofaround 30 percent to almostUS$1.17 billion compared withUS$902 million in the same threemonths of 2017 because of higheraverage prices ranging fromUS$7.80 per million British ther-mal units to US$9.00 per MMBtu.

The Northwest Shelf projectdelivered 62 cargoes in the threemonths to the end of March,though production was lower.

The company’s Pluto liquefac-tion plant shipped 18 cargoes inthe quarter and the newestWheatstone venture in whichWoodside is a 13 percent share-holder sent out 14 cargoes in thethree months.

IncomeWoodside said its quarterly LNGrevenue amounted to US$276.1 mil-lion for North West Shelf, up from$192M in the year-ago quarter.

Income was US$536.1M from

the Pluto plant, an increase fromthe US$428.1M posted in the samethree months of 2017. Wheatstonerevenue for Woodside was US$42Mversus US$7M in the fourth quarterof 2017 just after the start-up.

Woodside Chief Executive PeterColeman said the first quarter washighlighted by Train 1 at Wheat-stone LNG achieving steady produc-tion and demonstrating productionrates above nameplate capacity.

“Train 2 at Wheatstone is closeto completion and is expected tostart producing LNG this quarter.Once both LNG Trains and the do-mestic gas facility are fully opera-tional, Wheatstone will contributemore than 13 million barrels of oil

equivalent of annual production,”said Coleman.

“During the quarter we an-nounced and completed the acqui-sition of an additional interest inthe Scarborough gas field.

“We now operate both theScarborough offshore gas re-source and Pluto LNG onshoreprocessing facility.

“It is our plan to accelerate thedevelopment of Scarboroughthrough an expansion of Pluto LNG.Concept selections for both the off-shore and onshore components ofthe project are targeted by the endof this year,” explained Coleman.

Woodside said average realisedprices for the NWS plant were

US$7.80 per million British ther-mal units for the three months tothe end of March 2018 comparedwith $6.00 per MMBtu in the samethree months to March 2017.

“Production was lower due tohigher ambient temperatures,”said Woodside whose one-sixthshare of the volumes is 16.1 per-cent of the total.

“An integrated onshore andoffshore turnaround involving LNGTrain 1, LNG Train 2 and Goodwyn-A (platform) is scheduled in May2018,” the company point out.

Prices for Pluto LNG were $9.00per MMBtu versus $8.70 in theyear-ago period.

“Production was lower due tohigher ambient temperatures andthe annualised loadable LNG pro-duction rate for the quarter was5.0 million tonnes per annum,”said Woodside.

The Wheatstone prices were$8.90 compared with $7.70 perMMBtu in the previous quarter. itis Australia’s newest plant and isoperated by Chevron Corp., com-ing on stream in 2017.

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Australian LNG operator Woodside postsrevenue surge helped by higher export prices

l NEWS LNG Unlimited 24 April 20182

Gorgon joint venture on Barrow Island plans new upstream development of offshore gas fieldsChevron Corp., the operator ofthe Gorgon LNG export plant onBarrow Island in Western Australia,is proceeding with the secondstage of upstream developmentfor 11 new feed-gas wells in theprolific offshore fields.

Chevron and its joint venturepartners are investing in the up-stream portion of the project inthe Gorgon and Jansz-Io fields, including offshore pipelines andsubsea structures to deliver thegas to the Barrow Island liquefac-tion plant producing 15.6 milliontonnes per annum LNG.

The US$54 billion Gorgon pro-ject came on stream in March 2016and the new field investmentswould fit in with Chevron’s

planned annual investment of upto $20Bln through 2020 while itsmain partners ExxonMobil andRoyal Dutch Shell would pay theirshares as well.

The original budget for Gorgonwas US$37Bln when it was firstgiven the go-ahead and costs rosethrough 2016 by US$17Bln becauseof delays and the complexity ofthe project.

Chevron as the Gorgon operatorholds a stake of 47.3 percent inthe venture, while ExxonMobil andShell each has a 25 percent stake.

Other small stakes in the ven-ture are held by Japanese utilitiesOsaka Gas, Tokyo Gas and Jera Co.Inc, comprising Tokyo ElectricPower Co. and Chubu Electric.

The same Japanese utilities areholders of long-term supply con-tracts with the Gorgon plant.

The largest supply accord heldby Chevron on its own are for 8.91MTP, with SK LNG Trading of SouthKorea purchasing 4.15MTPA.

The agreements also include1.44 MTPA for Jera, 1.37 MTPA forOsaka Gas, 1.1 MTPA for TokyoGas, 300,000 tonnes per annumfor Kyushu Electric, 300,000tonnes per annum for JX NipponOil and 250,000 tonnes per annumfor GS Caltex of South Korea.

Chevron is also the operator ofAustralia’s newest export plant,the onshore Wheatstone venturenear the Western Australian townof Ashburton in the Pilbara region.

“Through ongoing collabora-tion, we need to invest in both theinfrastructure and the local skillsand capability required to main-tain our long-term energy positionand contribute to the jobs of thefuture,” said Chevron AustraliaManaging Director Nigel Hearne.

“Benefits are expected to flowthrough to Australian industry,arising from local project manage-ment, drilling and completion ac-tivities and subsea infrastructureinstallation,” added Hearne

According to Chevron, this Gor-gon project illustrates the ongoinginfrastructure investment requiredto keep the Trains full of feed-gasfor processing.

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Woodside’s Karratha gas plant in Western Australia

LNG Journal editor

Australian liquefied natural gasproducers have welcomed the de-cisions by the Northern Territorygovernment to lift a ban on hy-draulic fracturing for onshoreshale gas exploration and said itwas an opportunity for the nextLNG supply gap in the 2020s.

The first exploration frackingby energy companies is expectedto occur early in 2018 after theimplementation of a regulatoryregime and new laws, which thegovernment insists will be strict.

An independent report into hy-draulic fracturing completed forthe Northern Territory by an Aus-

tralian federal judge found thatthe risks associated with thefracking of gas deposits could bemanaged and regulated.

Northern Territory Chief MinisterMichael Gunner said the oil and gasindustry would create jobs in oneof Australia’s most remote areas.

“Forty-nine percent of the Ter-ritory will be ‘frack-free’, includ-ing in national parks, conservationareas, Indigenous protected areas,towns, residential and strategicassets, and areas of high cultural,environmental or tourism value,”stated Gunner.

“We promised an independent,

scientific inquiry after which wewould either ban fracking or allowit in highly regulated circum-stances in tightly prescribedareas,” he explained.

Australian Petroleum Produc-tion and Exploration Associationsaid natural gas and oil companieswere ready to spend billions in theTerritory.

Among the other individualcompanies that welcomed the de-cision by the Northern Territorygovernment was Santos, the Ade-laide-based operator of the Glad-stone LNG plant.

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24 April 2018 LNG Unlimited NEWS l 3Oil Search of PNG posts outputdrop and opens Japan office

Oil Search, the Papua New Guinea-focused energy company, posted a36 percent drop in production as aresult of the earthquake in PNG inFebruary, though was optimisticabout liquefied natural gas expan-sion plans for the Oceania nation.

The Oil Search-operated Cen-tral Processing Facility resumedoperations in late March, with thecompany saying oil production atKutubu commenced at an initialrate of approximately 4,000 bar-rels of oil per day.

Re-startIt added that the PNG LNG plantsafely recommenced LNG produc-tion in mid-April, ahead of opera-tor ExxonMobil’s previouslyestimated eight-week timeframe.LNG exports have resumed.

Peter Botten, Managing Direc-tor of Oil Search, said the firstquarter of 2018 had been one ofthe most challenging in OilSearch’s and PNG’s history.

“Very fortunately, all Oil Searchstaff and contractors located atthe company’s operating sites wereaccounted for, with only minor injuries reported,” said Botten.

“While the PNG Highlandsearthquake disrupted our produc-tion operations during the quarter,it had no impact on the progressof LNG expansion activities, whichhave accelerated following theachievement of broad alignmenton the preferred downstream de-velopment concept between OilSearch, Total and ExxonMobil inearly 2018,” explained Botten.

“The proposed developmentconcept comprises the constructionof three LNG Trains, with total ca-pacity of approximately 8 milliontonnes per annum on the existingPNG LNG plant site,” said Botten.

“Two of these Trains are ex-

pected to be dedicated to PapuaLNG, supplied with gas from theElk-Antelope fields, with the thirdexpansion Train underpinned bygas from the existing PNG LNGfields and the P’nyang field,”added Botten.

Botten also stated that becauseof the LNG expansion, during thequarter Oil Search established anoffice in Japan, staffed by a highlyexperienced LNG marketing team.

“The team will target cus-tomers in North-East and South-East Asian markets for offtakeagreements covering Oil Search’sshare of expansion LNG,” he said.

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Papua New Guinea recently held post-quake LNG event

Santos gives update on EIG takeover and expansionSantos, the Australian stake-holder in three Asia-PacificLNG export ventures, issued asolid first-quarter earningsreport, including an updateon the US$10.4-billiontakeover bid from HarbourEnergy, a subsidiary of US equity firm EIG Global EnergyPartners.

“Harbour Energy has com-menced confirmatory duediligence as part of an en-gagement process to deter-mine if a proposal can bedeveloped that is capable ofbeing recommended by theSantos Board to sharehold-ers,” said Santos.

“There is no certainty thatthe Harbour Proposal will re-sult in an offer for Santos ca-pable of being recommendedby the Board for considera-tion by shareholders,” saidthe Adelaide-based company.

“Santos Directors reiteratethat shareholders should takeno action in relation to theHarbour proposal,” it added.

Santos Chief ExecutiveKevin Gallagher said thecompany’s first-quarter re-sults highlighted the benefitsof a diversified portfolio ofnatural gas asset and an op-erating model focused oncash generation.

“In the first quarter of2018, we generated $246 million in free cash flow, reduced net debt by 8 per-cent to $2.5 billion and main-tained our 2018 forecast freecash flow breakeven at US$36per barrel, despite the signifi-cant increase in drilling activ-ity in Queensland and theCooper Basin, and the tempo-rary shutdown in PNG follow-ing major earthquakeactivity,” said the CEO.

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LNG Journal editor

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24 April 2018 LNG Unlimited NEWS l 5

UK maritime classification societyLloyd's Register and the ChineseDalian Shipbuilding Corp., as wellas French ship storage technologycompany GTT, are advancing witha 30,000 cubic metres capacity,ballast-free LNG carrier designand have just brought Belgianshipping line Exmar on board thejoint development project.

A meeting was held at Lloyd'sRegister’s premises in the Chineseport of Shanghai to commencePhase II of the project and to wel-come Exmar as a new partner inthe venture.

First phaseThe first phase of the project per-formed by Dalian Shipbuilding, GTTand Lloyd's Register developed anew design of ballast-free medium-sized LNG carrier, fully compliantwith the new International Mar-itime Organization “Ballast WaterManagement Convention” and usingmembrane containment systems.

“It showed the potential forcompetitive advantages for theship-owners, combining environ-

mentally-friendly features with increased efficiency,” the compa-nies said.

They added that initial workhad indicated potentially lowerconstruction and operational costs.

The small-scale LNG carrier de-sign received an Approval in Prin-ciple from Lloyd's Register inDecember 2017.

The partners said Phase IIaimed to develop the design fur-ther and to validate the initial results by applying more detailedanalysis and verification, includingmodel testing.

They believed the addition ofExmar brought a wealth of experi-ence in operation of LNG and liq-uefied petroleum gas ships to theproject team, which would helptake the design from a concept to

a viable, practical vessel meetingthe requirements of end users.

“The ballast-free concept is awell-suited solution in the contextof a shipping world with growingenvironmental requirements andconcerns,” said Pierre Dincq, Man-aging Director of Shipping at Exmar.

“By eliminating the need forballast water, there is an absolutecertainty that no invasive specieswill be transported on board ofthe vessel,” he added.

“Moreover, the ballast watertreatment plant can be omitted,reducing the maintenance re-quirements and the energy con-sumption of the vessel which has a positive impact on the CO2 foot-print of the vessel,” explained theExmar executive.

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Lloyd’s Register and China’s Dalian yard advance ballast-free LNG carrier

NEWSNUDGES

LNG Journal editorChart contractin CroatiaChart Ferox, a subsidiary of USLNG equipment company ChartIndustries, said it was awardeda contract for the design, man-ufacture and commissioning ofthe first LNG vehicle fuelingstation in the Balkan state ofCroatia. “The skidded design incorporates our recently intro-duced 60 cubic metres horizon-tal cryogenic storage tanktogether with many other inno-vative features for enhancedreliability and economy,” saidChart. The company added thatits proprietary vaporizationtechnology would ensure thatthe station was capable of fuel-ing all LNG vehicles available on the market, regardless ofwhether they are equipped withspark ignited or compressionengines.

Sempra plansfor MexicoSempra Energy, the California-based utility transforming itsCameron LNG terminal inLouisiana and Costa Azul facilityon the Pacific coast of Mexicointo export plants, said it wasscaling back its Mexican lique-faction plans. The Sempra Mexi-can subsidiary, InfraestructuraEnergetica Nova (IEnova), isnow looking at a small-scaleplant with 2.5 million tonnesper annum of output by around2023 instead of a larger plantconstructed later with up to 12 MTPA of capacity and closerto the size of Cameron LNG.

Enel LNGship charterFlex LNG, the Norway-listedshipping and project company,has chartered an LNG carrierfor 12 months to Italian energycompany Enel Trade SpA. Flexsaid the charter would start inthe second half of 2019 with anoption to extend for 12 months.

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Joint development project expands to include Exmar

Malaysian line AET charters two new LNG-fueled Aframax tankers to ShellAET Inc., the petroleum logisticsunit of Malaysian InternationalShipping Corp. with an operationalfleet of 94 vessels, has signed acharter deal with Shell Interna-tional Trading and Shipping Co. forthe long-term charter of AET's twonewbuild LNG dual-fuelled Afra-max tankers.

AET's two 113,000 deadweight-ton vessels are currently beingbuilt by Samsung Heavy Industriesin South Korea and are due for de-livery from third quarter of 2018.

The agreement will see Shelltake both vessels on a long-termcharter commencing in the fourthquarter of this year.

“As a world-leading owner and

operator of petroleum vessels,we have a responsibility to em-brace the future of sustainableshipping,” said AET's Presidentand CEO, Captain RajalingamSubramaniam.

AET is based in Singaporethough also has offices in KualaLumpur, London, Panama, Rio deJaneiro and Galveston, Texas.

“We took the decision to beginbuilding LNG dual-fuelled Aframaxvessels some time ago and thesetwo Aframaxes are amongst thefirst to take their place in ourglobal fleet,” said Subramaniam.

The Aframax class is a medium-sized crude tanker and its namederives from AFRA which stands

for Average Freight Rate Assess-ment. The system was created in1954 by Shell Oil to standardizecontract terms.

“As part of the MISC Group,AET upholds our environmentalstewardship by consistently evalu-ating greener solutions, and ourinvestment in the LNG dual-fu-elled Aframax tankers is a furthertribute to this,” he added.

When operating in LNG mode,the two AET tankers will emit upto 30 percent less carbon-dioxide,85 percent less nitrogen-oxide and99 percent sulphur oxide, makingthem among the cleanest Aframaxtankers in the market.

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l NEWS LNG Unlimited 24 April 20186

Golar LNG said its power venturesubsidiary set up with StonepeakInfrastructure Partners closed a fi-nancial agreement for a project innortheast Brazil involving a powerplant and a liquefied natural gasimport facility.

The project in the small north-east Brazilian state of Sergipe willinclude “a fully flexible and highlyefficient natural gas-fired plant”that will enable Brazil to increaseits energy security while continu-ing to expand its development ofrenewable energy resources.

Ship charterIn connection with financial closeof the project, Golar Power hasalso executed final agreements forthe venture to charter the “GolarNanook”, a newbuild 170,000cubic metres capacity floatingstorage and regasification unit fora term of 26 years.

The annual earnings contribu-tion for Golar Power is currentlyprojected to be around US$41 mil-lion and with upside potential forGolar to use the remaining two-

thirds of FSRU capacity not uti-lized by the project.

The terminal is located in astrategic entry point in northernBrazil, within 20 kilometres of themain gas distribution network, andhas the potential to unlock futureLNG distribution opportunities inthe country.

Centrais Elétricas de Sergipe,the joint venture company 50 percent held by Golar Power, willreceive $1.34 billion under theproject financing accord.

The proceeds will go towardsfunding a 1.5-gigawatts power

plant, a dedicated 34-kilometreshigh-voltage transmission line, anassociated gas pipeline and themooring infrastructure required forthe LNG import terminal facility.

“Total expenditure is estimatedat $1.74Bln and the total equitycontribution of approximately$400M has been fully paid-in andincludes US$123M in cash reserveaccounts that were pre-funded bythe project sponsors,” said Golar.

The power project is expectedto generate gross earnings ofaround $323M at current exchangerates. The start of power station

commercial operations is sched-uled for January 2020.

Payments under the executedpower purchase agreement are inflation indexed and provide forpass-through of fuel costs to thecounterparties.

“This innovative financing represents a key milestone in thedevelopment of Golar Power infrastructure projects globally,establishing a precedent for financing in local currency in support of projects receiving revenues in local currency whichare adjusted based on inflation,”said Golar Power Chief ExecutiveEduardo Antonello.

“The project bond issuance hasattracted the interest of multipleinternational investors and opensa new horizon of opportunities forinfrastructure development,”added Antonello.

“With this experience, we believe Golar Power is uniquelypositioned to help deliver theseopportunities globally to new and underserved customers andgeographies,” he stated.

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Golar LNG signs financing accord for LNG and gas-fired power project in northeastern Brazil

Port of Sergipe to be location of import and gas plants

LNG Journal editor

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24 April 2018 LNG Unlimited NEWS l 7US LNG data shows Mexico leads table of top 10 importers

After two years of liquefied natu-ral gas exports from the SabinePass plant in Louisiana, the top 10recipients of cargoes have beenled by Mexico with 57 shipments,South Korea with 55 cargoes,China with 42 cargoes and Japanwith 21 cargoes.

According to the US Depart-ment of Energy LNG export datafor February, which marked a fulltwo years of exports started inFebruary 2016, the other six na-tions in the top 10 were; 5th.Chile (20 cargoes); 6th. Jordan (15cargoes); 7th. India (12 cargoes);8th. Turkey (12 cargoes); 9th. Ar-gentina (11 cargoes); and 10th.Spain (11 cargoes).

New waveThe top 10 buyers of the US car-goes during the two years ac-counted for 76.8 percent of theexported volumes from SabinePass, owned by Houston, Texas-based Cheniere Energy.

Since the new wave of US LNGexports began in February 2016, atotal of 25 nations have receivedLNG cargoes from Sabine Pass.

Two other countries in theCaribbean, Barbados and the Ba-hamas, have taken delivery of LNGshipments in ISO containers onconventional vessels from Florida.

Barbados received 96 containersover the two-year period and theBahamas imported 10 shipments.

In total five Free Trade Agree-ment countries were sold LNGshipments (48.8 percent of thetotal) from the February 2016-February 2018 period while 22Non-FTA nations received (51.2percent) the shipments.

Spot LNG cargoes made up 257.3billion cubic feet of deliveries(24.8 percent) in the two-year pe-riod from the total of 1,036.3 Bcfof the total volume of shipments.

Starting from March 2018, the

DoE figures will include data fromthe single-Train Cove Point exportplant in Maryland, owned by Do-minion Energy and with total ca-pacity of 5.2 million tonnes perannum.

The Sabine Pass plant now hasfour liquefaction Trains on stream,each with nameplate capacity of4.5 MTPA, giving a total of 18 MTPA.

The latest DoE figures showedthat a total of 21 cargoes wereshipped from Sabine Pass duringFebruary 2018.

South Korea received eight car-goes in February, Mexico four car-goes, China, Japan and Taiwanimported two each and singleshipments were sent to Chile, Jordan and Turkey.

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TechnipFMC wins contract for Senegaland MauritaniaTechnipFMC, the French-US en-ergy engineering company, wasawarded a front-end engineeringdesign contract by BP for afloating production storage andoffloading (FPSO) unit that willbe part of the LNG productionproject planned for offshore theWest African states of Senegaland Mauritania.

The FPSO will be deployed aspart of the Tortue-AhmeyimField Development for the LNGventure on the offshore mar-itime border between Maurita-nia and Senegal.

The FLNG project is beingdeveloped by BP and its Dallas,Texas-based partner Kosmos En-ergy for the Tortue natural gasdiscoveries and will comprisetwo FLNG processing hulls aswell as the FPSO and other off-shore infrastructure.

BP and Kosmos have esti-mated that the Greater TortueComplex has resources for LNGproduction of around 25 trillioncubic feet of feed-gas and anadditional 15 Tcf is contained innearby fields.

The first gas from the Kosmos-BP FLNG Train 1 is scheduled for2021 and the start of the secondFLNG Train is set for 2023.

TechnipFMC said its agree-ment with BP was expected tolead to an Engineering, Procure-ment, Construction and Installa-tion (EPCI) contract at a laterstage. The engineering companywith offices in Paris and Houstonsaid it would work on definingthe technology and equipmentscope, including the possibility offabrication at a Chinese shipyard.

“We are very honored to beawarded this contract in WestAfrica which further demonstratesour leading position in offshoregas monetization,” said Nello Uc-celletti, President of TechnipFMC’sOnshore-Offshore business.

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Manzanillo import facility on Mexican Pacific coast

LNG Journal editor

Japanese LNG imports drop as Australia offsets Asian fallJapanese liquefied natural gas im-ports dropped 2.6 percent as Aus-tralian and spot volumes offset alarge fall in shipments from Asiaand thermal coal was preferred toLNG for power generation.

The nation’s LNG importsamounted to 7.93 million tonnesin March compared with 8.14MT inthe same month of 2017, accord-ing to the preliminary trade fig-ures from the Japanese FinanceMinistry.

LNG shipments fell as importsof thermal coal for power genera-tion increased by 2.6 percent dur-ing March to 9.90MT.

Japan’s imports of LNG had

risen by 6.5 percent in Februaryto 8.29MT compared with 7.79MTin February 2017.

The cost of the shipmentsjumped by around 12 percent inMarch 2018 to 413.43 billion yen($3.85Bln) compared with368.74Bln yen ($3.43Bln) inMarch 2017.

Japan's nuclear power plants,numbering more than 50, werelargely still offline in March 2018with only four currently operating.

The Ministry data for Marchshowed that Asian shipmentsfrom nations such as Malaysiaand Indonesia, Papua New Guineaand Brunei declined by 12.7 per-

cent from March 2017 to 2.19MT.Imports from the Middle East

region dropped 1.1 percent withshipments from countries likeQatar, the United Arab Emiratesand Oman totalling 1.81MT inMarch.

Russian monthly shipmentsfrom the Sakhalin Island plant inthe Far East were down 8.9 per-cent at 653,000 tonnes.

Imports from the US duringMarch from the Cheniere Energy-owned Sabine Pass plant inLouisiana amounted to 129,000tonnes, a fall of 7.8 percent ver-sus March 2017.

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Lake Charles LNG, the liquefactionand project owned by US pipelinecompany Energy Transfer and in-volving Royal Dutch Shell, hasasked regulators to extend thedeadline for the start of construc-tion to November 2019.

The proposed project facilitiesinclude the construction, modifi-cation, and operation of terminaland pipeline facilities in Louisiana,Arkansas and Mississippi.

NotificationsLake Charles LNG stated that it hadalso requested from the LouisianaDepartment of EnvironmentalQuality an additional 18-month extension of the deadline to startbuilding the facility on the site ofthe existing import terminal.

“Most of the regulatory pre-work and notifications to com-plete filings have now expired,”Energy Transfer noted in its letterto the Federal Energy RegulatoryCommission.

The FERC issued a draft envi-ronmental impact statement inSeptember 2015 for the LakeCharles export venture to produce

16.5 million tonnes per annum of LNG.

“The second construction ex-tension request is currently under-going a 30-day public noticeperiod before final approval. Thepublic notice was published onApril 3, 2018 and the commentdeadline is May 8, 2018,” said Energy Transfer.

In addition to pursuing the LakeCharles export venture with Shell,Dallas-based Energy Transfer signedan accord in 2017 with SouthKorea-based Korea Gas Corp. tostudy the feasibility of joint partic-ipation in the Louisiana venture.

Shell gained its stake in the

Lake Charles facility’s reserved capacity from its takeover of BGGroup of the UK.

The project will include theconstruction of three liquefactionTrains and will use the existing LNGstorage and marine berthing facili-ties owned by Equity Transfer sinceits takeover of Southern Union Co.in 2013 for more than $5Bln.

The proposed Lake Charles liq-uefaction plant was first awarded apermit by the Department of En-ergy in August 2013 to ship cargoesto countries without a US FreeTrade Agreement. Now the volumesfor that permit has been increased.

Before the shale-gas boom Lake

Charles was one of the centres ofUS LNG imports, with BG bringingin cargoes from nations such asTrinidad and Equatorial Guinea.

BG and Energy Transfer hadpreviously scheduled a commercialstart-up for the plant in 2019.

The 440-acre site is locatedclose to Henry Hub with access tomany of the largest natural gasproduction areas in the US throughEnergy Transfer’s existing and newpipelines like the Trunkline GasSystem.

DeliveriesEnergy Transfer’s Trunkline GasSystem amounts to a 2,200-milepipeline that interconnects withmore than a dozen interstate andintrastate pipelines to ship feed-gas to Lake Charles LNG and otherprojects along the Gulf Coast.

Energy Transfer began in 1995as a small intra-state natural gaspipeline operator and is now oneof the largest energy partnershipsin the US.

It has grown from holding 200miles of natural gas pipelines in2002 to about 56,000 miles of nat-ural gas pipelines now.

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Lake Charles export venture proposed at Louisianaterminal extends construction start-up permit to 2019

Rio Grande project developer in Texas opens officesin Singapore and Beijing and hires ex-Shell executiveNextDecade Corp, the developerof the Rio Grande export plant inTexas and with plans for otherpipeline and liquefaction facili-ties, has opened offices in Singa-pore and Beijing to serve futurecustomers in Asia.

NextDecade also hired a newexecutive formerly with RoyalDutch Shell, James MacTaggart, as Senior Vice President to headthe US company’s LNG marketingdivision in Asia.

MacTaggart has served morethan 20 years with Shell in variousmarketing and trading positions.

NextDecade’s plans centre onconstructing an LNG portfolio ofprojects, including the Rio Grande

export plant at the port ofBrownsville with capacity of 27 million tonnes per annum.

The company had made seniorexecutive changes in January 2018when Chief Executive KathleenEisbrenner handed over executiveleadership to former BG Group ex-ecutive Matthew K. Schatzmanwhile she became Chairman.

Former Shell senior LNG execu-tive Eisbrenner founded the com-pany in 2010. It eventually becameNextDecade and is now listed onthe Nasdaq stock exchange.

Schatzman was previously Executive Vice President, GlobalEnergy Marketing and Shipping,and a member of the Group Exec-

utive Committee at BG, now partof Shell.

The new CEO is now emphasiz-ing the importance of the Asianmarket to the company’s develop-ment by opening the Singaporeand Beijing offices.

“The appointment of MacTag-gart and the opening of these of-fices reinforce our commitment toserving the world’s largest andfastest growing LNG markets,”said Schatzman.

“We believe focusing on thesemarkets is key to achieving a suc-cessful Final Investment Decisionon our Rio Grande LNG project,”added the CEO.

Before joining NextDecade,

MacTaggart was General Managerof Shell’s New Gas and LNG Mar-kets business in Asia, India and theMiddle East.

“I am honored to join the sea-soned and highly capable team atNextDecade,” said MacTaggart,who is based in Singapore and willlead Asian operations from there.

“I am eager to bring toNextDecade’s prospective customersthe significant competitive advan-tages of the Rio Grande LNG pro-ject, including its market-leadingEPC costs and its proximity to abun-dant, low-cost natural gas resourcesin the Permian Basin and EagleFord Shale,” added MacTaggart.

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Export venture also involves Shell and Korea Gas Corp

LNG Journal editor

24 April 2018 LNG Unlimited NEWS l9