Import

Cheniere Energy, which is planning three liquefied natural gas import terminals along the Gulf Coast, said it awarded the front end engineering design contracts for the Sabine Pass, LA, and Corpus Christi, TX, terminals to Black & Veatch Pritchard Inc. (B&V). The design work is expected to be completed for both sites by the end of September. B&V also worked for Cheniere on its first LNG site in Freeport, TX. An application for the Freeport terminal was filed with FERC last month (see Daily GPI, April 1). Cheniere said it plans to file FERC applications for the remaining two projects by next January. The two sites that Cheniere has chosen appear to be “exceptional locations for both access and permitting,” said Dwayne R. Stone, president of Black & Veatch. Cheniere CEO Charif Souki added that the sites were selected because they have “deepwater access, closeness to open water, safety, sufficient land, local demand for gas and pipeline access. Furthermore, the local communities at all three sites have been very welcoming and supportive. By the end of 2007, we hope to have facilities in place, which will allow suppliers the ability to bring 5 to 6 Bcf/d of gas into the country through these strategically selected Gulf Coast locations. It will give these importers flexibility and minimize the probability of delays to their ships because of weather, traffic, or unexpected channel closures, through the availability of multiple port locations, a multitude of docks, plentiful storage and pipeline access.”

The first and most complex of four proposed liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminals in Baja California was approved Thursday by Mexico’s Comision Reguladora de Energia (CRE). Marathon Oil Corp. and its joint development partners, Grupo GGS S.A. de C.V. and Golar LNG Limited, announced that their operating company, Gas Natural Baja California, received a storage permit for the Tijuana Regional Energy Center.

FERC on Friday gave the green light for CMS Trunkline LNG Co. LLC to begin construction of expansion facilities at its liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminal near Lake Charles, LA, but it’s likely the job will be carried out by the LNG company’s prospective new owner, Southern Union Co.

Natural gas prices will stay sufficiently high in the future to support the increased import of liquefied natural gas (LNG) in the United States, and San Diego-based Sempra Energy intends to be a leader in the emerging LNG trade, according to Sempra CEO Steve Baum, speaking to a Merrill Lynch energy financial forum in New York City.

Natural gas prices will stay sufficiently high in the future to support the increased import of liquefied natural gas (LNG) in the United States, and San Diego-based Sempra Energy intends to be a leader in the emerging LNG trade, according to Sempra CEO Steve Baum, speaking to a Merrill Lynch energy financial forum in New York City.

A power trading practice detected last month by PJM Interconnection that spiked power prices and sent loop flows higher by more than 3,000 MW, did not violate the grid operator’s market rules, and instead was the result of flawed incentives for market participants who were attempting to maximize the price they received for power, the head of PJM’s market monitoring unit (MMU) said last Tuesday.

PJM Interconnection’s market monitoring unit (MMU) is taking a closer look at a series of events that took place earlier this month involving a power trading practice that churned loop flows higher by more than 3,000 MW and increased prices after a gulf emerged between contract and actual power flows at the grid operator’s interfaces with American Electric Power (AEP) and Dominion Virginia Power.

Two Trinidad-based LNG exporters are protesting a rate hike request by Southern LNG for terminaling at its Elba Island import station, saying the request would result in 260% cumulative increases since the project was first proposed. They warned that because of “inefficient high-cost bottlenecks in the gas chain, the United States’ gas market will become less attractive as a destination for LNG supplies.”

The potential hazard of re-activating the Cove Point liquefied natural gas (LNG) import facility so near to a nuclear facility, which came under attack in the Senate last week, already has been reviewed by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, a Williams spokeswoman said.