Cheniere Energy Inc. has terminated negotiations with the conflicts committee of the board of directors of Cheniere Energy Partners LP Holdings LLC regarding Cheniere’s previously announced proposal to acquire all of the publicly held shares of Cheniere Partners Holdings not already owned by Cheniere in a stock-for-stock merger transaction. “After more than six weeks of negotiations, and despite raising the offer to an exchange ratio of 0.54 (representing a premium of approximately 10% over the closing price of Cheniere Partners Holdings’ shares based on the closing prices of Cheniere Partners Holdings’ shares and of Cheniere’s shares as of Sept. 29, 2016…Cheniere has determined that no acceptable definitive agreement can be reached with the conflicts committee at this time,” the company said. Cheniere currently owns 80.1% of the issued and outstanding shares of Cheniere Partners Holdings.

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission staff has prepared an environmental assessment (EA) for Northern Natural Gas Co‘s proposed Cedar Station Upgrade Project in Dakota County, MN [CP16-487]. Northern Natural plans to construct and operate 7.8 miles of 20-inch diameter pipeline from its Rosemont Junction in Rosemont, MN, to the Cedar Station Meter Station in Eagan, which would allow it to increase pressure at the Cedar Station to 650 psig from 400 psig. The project would accommodate a contractual obligation to meet a delivery pressure for Northern States Power Co.‘s Black Dog Generating Station, according to Northern Natural. FERC Staff concluded that approval of the project, “with appropriate mitigating measures,” would not adversely affect the environment. FERC will accept comments on the EA until Jan. 9.

Southern California Gas Co. (SoCalGas) last Tuesday said its power-to-gas (P2G) hydrogen pipeline injection program at the University of California, Irvine, (UCI) campus has successfully demonstrated the use of excess renewable electricity that would otherwise go to waste, offering the possibility of a major breakthrough for storing renewable-produced power supplies. P2G is a technique for converting surplus clean energy from solar panels or wind farms into hydrogen that subsequently can be blended with natural gas for use in everything from home appliances to major power plants. The renewable fuel can also be converted to methane for use in a natural gas pipeline and storage system or used in hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, a SoCalGas spokesperson said. SoCalGas and UCI research engineers envision the P2G technology providing “significant advantages” over lithium ion batteries in enabling the storage of large amounts of carbon-free power. The Sempra Energy gas utility began funding the pilot project last year with the help of Proton OnSite, provider of an electrolyzer that makes hydrogen from electricity and water.