Sempra

Weather-related construction delays and recent global market developments are not curbing the bullishness of Sempra Energy executives toward the company’s plans for exporting liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the Gulf Coast, they said Tuesday.

With one of the energy sector’s larger stakes in Mexico, Sempra Energy is watching closely moves in the White House with the new president’s focus south of the border, but so far its CEO thinks the San Diego-based utility holding company will continue to do just fine down there.

Sempra Energy is doing its own due diligence as the joint venture (JV) it helped fashion to build liquefied natural gas (LNG) export facilities at its Cameron, LA, terminal site is grappling with construction delays that the contractor now estimates will push back the facility’s start to mid-2018, Sempra’s senior executives said Tuesday on a year-end earnings conference call.

Sempra Energy late Tuesday said it has asked FERC for authorization to site, construct and operate a liquefied natural gas (LNG) export facility, Port Arthur LNG LLC, east of Houston on the Sabine-Neches Waterway.

Rain and flooding in the Louisiana Gulf Coast have caused what is estimated to be a six-month delay in the completion of the three liquefaction trains under construction at Sempra Energy’s Cameron (LA) liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminal, Sempra CEO Debra Reed said during a 3Q2016 earnings conference call Wednesday.

San Diego-based Sempra Energy’s fast-growing Mexican unit, Infraestructura Energetica Nova, SAB de CV’s (IEnova), on Fridaypriced upcoming private and public sales of stock in an effort to raise US$1.43 billion to help acquire a 50% interest in a group of energy pipelines and an associated storage terminal from Mexico’s national energy company, Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex).

Mexico’s federal antitrust commission on Wednesday approved a stalled billion-dollar deal for a unit of San Diego-based Sempra Energy to acquire a 50% interest in a group of energy pipelines and an associated storage terminal from Mexico’s national energy company, Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex). The deal is expected to close later this month.

When an analyst asked her during Sempra Energy’s Wednesday conference call when rates would increase for natural gas storage services, the first thing CEO Debra Reed did was chuckle. However, there is some light at the end of the tunnel for storage rates that have long been held down by the shale-shifted gas market.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has authorized additional non-free trade agreement exports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Sempra Energy’s Cameron LNG terminal, whose first phase is under construction in Louisiana.