Point

FERC has granted permission for Dominion Energy to begin commercial service for its liquefied natural gas (LNG) export facility on Chesapeake Bay in Maryland.

Liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal developer NextDecade LLC has signed lease agreements with the state of Texas and city of Texas City for a nearly 1,000-acre site at Shoal Point for the potential development of an LNG export facility. Texas City owns almost 376 acres at Shoal Point, while the Texas General Land Office manages the adjoining 618 acres of state land. The Ports of Houston, Texas City and Galveston form the largest port complex in North America, and the NextDecade project could be the first LNG facility in the area, the company said. The Shoal Point site is east of a petrochemical industrial complex and 40 miles southeast of Houston. NextDecade is currently focused on Rio Grande LNG in South Texas, a 27 million tonne per annumproject that is advancing through the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission permitting process. The project at Shoal Point would benefit from NextDecade’s ability to replicate much of the design and engineering work done for Rio Grande LNG, a project that is expected to have one of the lowest construction costs of any LNG production facility in the world, the company said.

The Cove Point liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal is now two-thirds complete and on track for an in-service date in late 2017, management for Dominion Resources and Dominion Midstream Partners LP told investors Wednesday.

Environmentalists opposed to the export of liquefied natural gas (LNG) were turned down again in a federal appeals court on Friday when arguments against the ongoing liquefaction and export project at the existing Dominion Cove Point LNG terminal were rejected.

Defending its 2014 approval of Dominion Cove Point LNG Liquefaction Project’s export terminal in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit this week, FERC roundly dismissed a claim from several conservation groups that its environmental assessment did not properly consider how the project could lead to increases in unconventional natural gas drilling.

ExxonMobil Corp. has resumed drilling for natural gas at Point Thomson on Alaska’s North Slope. Construction is ongoing to bring online an initial production system, the company said Thursday. Gas production could one day be liquefied and shipped to Asian markets.

Three weeks after FERC staff determined that Dominion’s proposal to export liquefied natural gas (LNG) from a facility in Maryland posed no major threat to the environment, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) urged regulators to grant the company an export license.

AES Corp. has thrown in the towel on its long-sought Sparrows Point liquefied natural gas (LNG) import project and associated pipeline, after seven years of fighting project opponents. During that period, the North American natural gas market did a complete flip to soon become an LNG exporter.

ANR Pipeline Co. on Monday announced two open seasons for projects intended to give Marcellus and Utica shale gas a new export option and access to the pipeline’s markets in the Midwest and Gulf Coast.