American Oil and Gas Reporter - February 2019 - 64

SpecialReport: Unconventional Resource Science
of 2019, it would translate to nearly
double the demand from LNG exports in
the first quarter of last year.
More Trains Coming
In addition to Train 5 at Sabine Pass
and the first two trains at Corpus Christi,
an additional five new liquefaction trains
are expected to be commercialized this
year, expanding U.S. feed gas demand
for LNG exports to the 9 Bcf/d level by
year's end, as shown in Figure 4. Cameron
(peach-colored layer in Figure 4) alone
is scheduled to complete three new trains
this year. Freeport (teal blue layer) aims
to bring on line the first of its three trains
on the Texas Gulf Coast, and Elba Island
LNG is developing 10 minitrains at its
facility in Georgia (purple layer). The
parenthetical numbers in Figure 4 indicate
the number of trains due at each facility
by the end of the year, if all goes as
planned.
Like Sabine Pass and Cove Point,
Sempra's Cameron LNG (Total, Mitsui
& Co., and Japan LNG Investment also
are partners) is a brownfield liquefaction
and export project that involves modifying
an existing LNG import terminal developed years ago when the United States
was expected to become a major LNG
importer. The first phase of the project,
located in southwestern Louisiana on the
border of Calcasieu and Cameron parishes,
involves building three, 4.5-MMtpa trains
(~2 Bcf/d total). The three trains were
originally due to come on line last year,

but are now all slated for completion this
year (a potential second phase of development, which is still pending FID, would
expand the facility by two more trains).
Three off-takers originally signed up
for 4 MMtpa (~500 MMcf/d) each of
liquefaction capacity at the facility: Engie,
Mitsui and Mitsubishi. Much of that capacity subsequently has been sold to
smaller (principally Japanese) buyers,
among them Marubeni.
Sempra announced in November that
it had begun commissioning the first of
the three trains, although feed gas flows
so far are nominal (less than 25 MMcf/d).
In its latest guidance, Sempra said it expected to produce its first LNG and complete commissioning of Train 1 this
quarter, followed Train 2 ramping up by
mid-year and Train 3 starting in late
2019.
Three liquefaction trains, each with a
capacity of 4.4 MMtpa (~1.7 Bcf/d total)
are under construction at Freeport LNG's
brownfield facility at Quintana Island,
some 50 miles south of Houston. The
first train originally was slated to come
on line in late 2018 and the next two
trains in 2019. However, Hurricane Harvey
in August 2017 contributed to construction
delays at Freeport, and in April 2018, the
developer announced a revised schedule
that pushed Train 1's in-service to September 2019, with trains 2 and 3 to follow
four and eight months later, respectively
(a fourth train has been proposed, but
has not yet reached an FID).

FIGURE 4
U.S. LNG Export Capacity Build-Out

Osaka Gas and JERA, an alliance of
Tokyo Electric Power Co. and Chubu
Electric Power Co., together have contracted for 50 percent each of the initial
train's capacity (Osaka subsequently sold
one-third of its capacity to Uniper). BP
Energy has signed up for the full capacity
of the second train, and the third train's
capacity was picked up originally by
Toshiba Corp. and South Korea's SK
E&S, although Toshiba last November
announced it was selling its U.S. LNG
business to China's ENN Group. Last
June, Freeport LNG also announced that
Trafigura signed a three-year agreement
for 0.5 MMtpa on Train 3 starting in
mid-2020.
Elba Island Terminal
Elba Island near Savannah in Chatham
County, Ga., is different both in scope
and design than the other projects coming
on stream in 2019. Operated by Kinder
Morgan in partnership with EIG Global
Partners, the terminal uses Moveable Modular Liquefaction System (MMLS) technology developed by Shell to provide
flexible small-scale liquefaction at the
existing Elba Island facility. The first of
the 10 minitrains is expected to start this
quarter, with the other nine following in
quick succession over the course of the
year. Each train has a capacity of 0.25
MMtpa for a total liquefaction capacity
of 2.5 MMtpa, or 330 MMcf/d, for a total
of 350 MMcf/d in feed gas demand.
The project is fully subscribed by
Shell. The 10 minitrains will receive feed
gas through the Elba Express Co. (EEC)
Pipeline, which extends from the terminal
to interconnect with the Williams Transco
Pipeline at the Georgia-South Carolina
border. That includes receipt and delivery
meters along Transco's Zone 4 in Hart
County, Ga., and with Zone 5 in Anderson
County, S.C. Both zones were expanded
recently and reversed to flow southbound
from the Marcellus Shale region in Appalachia as part of Transco's Atlantic

Coming In March
The Louisiana Oil & Gas Association will hold its 2019 annual meeting, March 20-22 at the Golden
Nugget Resort Casino in Lake
Charles, La. See the Official Convention Section in the March issue of
The American Oil & Gas Reporter.
64 THE AMERICAN OIL & GAS REPORTER

American Oil and Gas Reporter - February 2019

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