ICE to Offer First US Gulf Coast LNG Futures Contract
With the United States about to become a net exporter of natural gas for the first time in 60 years, Intercontinental Exchange Inc said on Wednesday it would begin trading the first-ever U.S. liquefied natural gas futures contract in May. ICE said the contracts would be cash-settled against the Platts LNG Gulf Coast Marker price assessment and use Platts-derived U.S. GCM LNG forward curves for daily settlement purposes. The curves will have an initial term of 48 months. "Domestic and international market participants now have a risk-management solution that lays the foundation for a more effective means of hedging their spot and forward exposure," J.C. Kneale, ICE's vice president, North American power and natural gas markets, said in a statement. U.S.
BOEM Approves Virginia’s Offshore Wind Research
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) announced its approval of the first wind energy Research Activities Plan (RAP) for a facility to be located in U.S. federal waters, as part of President Obama’s Climate Action Plan to create American jobs, develop clean energy sources and cut carbon pollution. Last year, BOEM awarded a research lease to the Virginia Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy (DMME) on the Outer Continental Shelf off the coast of Virginia. Today’s action clears the way for the installation and operation of two 6-megawatt (MW) turbines and associated cabling to shore, pending final engineering review of the project. The electricity generated by these turbines could power 3,000 homes.
US Becomes Net Natgas Exporter for a Day with Sale to Brazil
The United States turned into a net natural gas exporter for a day after the first liquefied natural gas export from Cheniere Energy Inc's Sabine Pass terminal in Louisiana left for Brazil on Wednesday. The United States however is not expected to become a net exporter of gas on an annual basis until 2017 after more pipelines to Mexico and LNG export terminals enter service, according to federal energy estimates. The United States was last a net exporter of gas on an annual basis in 1957. On Wednesday, the United States imported a net 4.8 billion cubic feet of gas per day from Canada and 0.2 bcfd from various LNG import terminals for a total of about 5 bcfd in imports.
US Gives Final Approval to LNG Exports from Corpus Christi
The U.S. Energy Department said on Tuesday it has given final approval for Cheniere to export liquefied natural gas from its plant in Corpus Christi, Texas. The approval allows the plant to export the equivalent of 2.1 billion cubic feet per day of natural gas for 20 years to countries with which the United States does not have a free trade agreement. The U.S. Energy Information Administration believes the country could become a net LNG exporter by 2017. The boom in domestic energy drilling and demand from gas consumers in Europe and Asia has pushed companies to build multi billion-dollar facilities to export the fuel. Cheniere hopes to export LNG from Corpus Christi beginning in 2018. Last week, the DOE approved LNG exports from Dominion Resources Inc's Cove Point plant in Maryland.
BOEM Issues Offshore Wind Energy Research Lease
The U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) has executed a wind energy research lease with the Commonwealth of Virginia’s Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy (DMME), BOEM announced today. This is BOEM’s first executed wind energy research lease, coming as part of the Obama Administration’s Climate Action Plan to create American jobs, develop domestic clean energy resources and cut carbon pollution. Under this lease, DMME proposes to design, develop and demonstrate a grid-connected, 12-megawatt (MW) offshore wind test facility on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) off the coast of Virginia – adjacent to the Virginia Wind Energy Area (WEA).
Cove Point LNG Export Facility Gets US FERC Approval
U.S. federal regulators on Monday approved construction of Dominion Resources Inc's liquefied natural gas export project in Cove Point, Maryland. Cove Point is the fourth U.S. LNG export project to get the green light to begin construction from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. It will be able to export up to 5.75 million metric tons of LNG a year when fully operational. Dominion's facility is one of about two dozen projects that hope to ship a growing bounty of domestic natural gas to countries in Asia and Europe. The Cove Point site, a little more than an hour's drive southeast of Washington, D.C. on Chesapeake Bay, boasts four large storage tanks and a pier built in the 1970s to import LNG from Algeria, underscoring just how much U.S. market dynamics have changed.
FERC Approves Freeport LNG Export Project
U.S. federal regulators on Wednesday approved construction of Freeport LNG Development LP's liquefied natural gas export project in Texas. Freeport is the third U.S. LNG export project to get the green light to begin construction from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. The planned project would have the capacity to export up to 1.8 billion cubic feet a day of LNG once operational. With domestic gas production booming, U.S. companies have lined up to ship the nation's abundant shale gas abroad. FERC approved construction of Sempra Energy's Cameron LNG export terminal in Louisiana last month. Companies need approval from both the Energy Department…
BOEM Seeks Comment on Proposed Energy Research
As part of the Obama Administration's Climate Action Plan to create American jobs, develop domestic clean energy sources and cut carbon pollution, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) announced today that it is seeking public comment as it prepares an Environmental Assessment (EA) to analyze potential impacts from proposed wind energy research activities offshore Virginia. The Virginia Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy (DMME) has requested a research lease and proposes to design…
LNG Foes go to the Mat in Maryland
Maps of Indian and Japanese ports paper the walls of a Dominion Resources Inc conference room in a small Maryland town, population 1,835, known more for crabbing and bird watching than global trade and the U.S. natural gas revolution. Dominion, an American energy company long focused on U.S. markets, hopes to begin an expansion worth billions of dollars at its Cove Point complex on Chesapeake Bay later this year. As part of the plan, compressors fired by a new power plant would cool gas to -260 degrees F (-162 C) until it becomes the hot global commodity known as liquefied natural gas, or LNG. But if environmentalists, including a group that has led the charge against TransCanada Corp's long-delayed Keystone XL oil pipeline, get their way, Dominion won't soon be shipping anything anywhere.
Virginia Proposes Offshore Wind Project to Obama’s BOEM
As part of the Obama Administration's all-of-the-above energy strategy to continue to expand safe and responsible domestic energy development, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) announced today it has received a second unsolicited request from Virginia's Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy (DMME) for a research lease offshore Virginia. DMME proposes to design, develop, and demonstrate a grid-connected, 12-megawatt (MW) offshore wind test facility on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) off the coast of Virginia. BOEM will publish a "Public Notice of an Unsolicited Request for an OCS Research Lease, Request for Competitive Interest…
