Posted on 03/06/2018 3:01:00 PM PST by Oatka
Photo at link (give 'em some hits)
The first cargo of liquefied natural gas has set sail from the Dominion Energy Cove Point LNG export terminal in Maryland, where the newly constructed liquefaction facility is undergoing final commissioning.
The commissioning cargo of natural gas left the Cove Point facility on the Chesapeake Bay on Thursday, March 1, according to Dominion Energy. The cargo was loaded onboard the LNG tanker, Gemmata.
Shell NA LNG is providing the natural gas needed for liquefaction during the commissioning process. Once commissioning is complete, the Cover Point terminal will produce LNG for ST Cove Point, which is the joint venture of Sumitomo Corporation and Tokyo Gas, and for Gail Global (USA) LNG, the U.S. affiliate of GAIL (India) LTD, under 20-year contracts.
All major equipment has been operated and is being commissioned as expected following a comprehensive round of testing and quality assurance activities, according to Dominion Energy.
The Cove Point liquefaction facility is designed to operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and has a nameplate capacity of 5.25 million tonnes per year of LNG (mtpa), equivalent to approximately 8.3 million gallons of LNG per day.
The Cove Point terminal is now the second LNG export terminal in the contiguous United States to export natural gas. The first terminal, Cheniere Energy’s Sabine Pass terminal in Louisiana, began exporting in February 2016 and has transformed the United States into a global gas supplier.
Construction of the Cove Point liquefaction facility began in October 2014 after more than three years of federal, state and local permit reviews and approvals. Dominion says that with a cost of approximately $4 billion, the Cove Point facility is the largest construction project ever for Maryland and for the company. Construction has involved more than 10,000 craft workers and a payroll of more than $565 million.
The 72,727 dwt LNG carrier Gemmata was built in 2004 and is flagged in Singapore.
Has a nice ring to it.
Except we are excluded here in the Twilight Zone because Prince Andrew of the Hovel of Cuomo deems has to be “dirty” and banned the harvest of it in this depressed fading waste bucket of a region. Home of IBM no more...
I am proud to say that I had a hand in building that facility!
But Donald Trump is in the pocket of the Russians...
Who is buying?
Good job you all did on it. However, it languished vacant for years. Some years ago, I was dispatched by a company client to go look at it and give my opinion of its value. It was a good day to get out of the office and drive south to the peaceful end of Calvert County. I had a co-worker who lived on Solomon’s Island and commuted to Baltimore a couple of days per week. He and his buddies were members of the Chesapeake Ranch club and I would go down to play with them every once in awhile. It was lots of fun.
“Who is buying?”
Chinese. Europe. South America.
I remember friends who sailed on LNG ships in the 1970’s.
The ships loaded LNG in Algeria and delivered it to Cove Point.
Maine had an opportunity for an LNG terminal some years ago; the moonbats killed it.
Bravo sir!
Boston as well, moonbats killed it..
What a pompous daweesel he is. He could liberate UpState from is Malaise and the springboard the entire State if they did a port, but no, ideology and the revolution above everything else. IMHO it wouldn't surprise me if they are gobbing up the land and the rights and it is going to every connected D muck-e-d-muck and the day they do develop it, you will not be surprised who is on the receiving end of the profits..
Do LNG ships still come to Boston to off-load LNG?
Who is buying?
The whole world. Ships will be delivering the cargo all over the world, including as far away as India and China.
I did not see where this load is going, but you can follow it here: http://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/home/shipid:726661/zoom:10 - she is just out to sea, and appears to be heading 98 degrees (ESE) out of Virginia Beach. Probably going to Europe, Royal Dutch Shell owns the ship, but the buyer could be anywhere.
This is a fairly big facility (biggest construction project in Maryland history) - max capacity of approximately 5.25 million tonnes per year of LNG (mtpa), equivalent to 8.3 million gallons of LNG per day. That would have been about 2% of the global export market in 2016.
The Cove Point terminal is now the second LNG export terminal in the contiguous United States to export natural gas. The first terminal, Cheniere Energy’s Sabine Pass terminal in Louisiana, began exporting in February 2016 and has transformed the United States into a global gas supplier. It can produce as much as 27.0 mtpa of LNG - five times bigger than the new Cove Point facility in Maryland.
Three more export facilities are coming on line soon, which together will have 7 times the capacity of the new Cove Point facility, doubling current US export capacity close to what the world leader (Qatar) exports by tanker (Russia ships more by pipeline):
- Corpus Christi LNG, another Cheniere project, is under construction in Corpus Christi, Texas. Scheduled to begin service in 2018, with total permitted capacity at 2.14 Bcf/d.
- Sempra Energy’s Cameron LNG terminal, located in Hackberry, Louisiana, is scheduled to bring online in 2018 a total of 1.7 Bcf/d permitted capacity.
- Freeport LNG’s terminal planned for Freeport, Texas, has three trains under construction totaling 1.8 Bcf/d. The first two are scheduled to begin service in 2019, and the third in 2020.
A dozen more sites have applications pending (along the Gulf Coast, one in Alaska), for another 21.8 Bcf/d - totaling 28 times the capacity of the new Cove Point facility.
Bottom Line: From not being an exporter at all two years ago, we will potentially be able to supply a quarter of the world’s LNG tanker traffic in about two more years, and up to three quarters a few years after that, if prices support it.
That kind of export capacity would make us a realistic alternative for Europe, if Russia threatened to shut off their pipelines. It is a world changer.
Sell, baby sell. We have more gas than we can use.
What area is this Nat Gas coming from? Any from Canada?
Is that the same facility that has been there since the 70's, but never put into use?
I’m actually a little surprised Maryland allowed completion of this, given that they banned fracking of the fairly large field in the western part of the state and are fighting against several gas pipelines in the state.
Very nice... Deplorables built America...
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