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Pivot to the South: LNG Plants Under Development by Sempra Energy in Louisiana and Mexico

Sempra Energy, one of the key U.S. gas exporters, announced earlier in the month that it will continue to build liquefied natural gas (LNG) export plants in Louisiana and Mexico, while also continuing to develop Phase 1 of the Costa Azul LNG export plant in Mexico.

At the company's earnings call, Justin Bird, CEO of Sempra Infrastructure, assured that Costa Azul would produce its first LNG by the end of 2024. After completion, It is expected that Costa Azul will produce approximately 3.3 million tonnes of LNG per annum.

In addition, Sempra would develop the 4.0-mmtpa Vista Pacifico LNG export facility located next to the company's Terminal for Refined Products in Topolobampo.

A slated pipeline connecting Vista Pacifico to two existing grids would simultaneously provide gas from the Permian basin in Texas and New Mexico to Asian markets that are seeing a rapid increase in LNG demand.

Vista Pacifico is being built in conjunction with the Energia Costa Azul (ECA) LNG project currently under construction in Baja California, for which the company has been awarded permits by the U.S. Energy Department to export to countries with an FTA, approval for non-FTA countries is expected in the coming months.

A mid-size LNG facility, Vista Pacifico would be supplied with lower-cost natural gas from the Permian Basin to export to high-demand Asian markets. Business operations associated with it will fall under the Sempra Infrastructure business platform.

Sempra Energy officials also assured that they will continue to be focused on putting together a roughly 6- million ton-per-annum fourth train at Cameron LNG, as well as optimizing operation at the 15- million ton-per-annum, three-train facility in Louisiana.

It was mentioned that both the Vista Pacifico project and the Cameron expansion might be sanctioned before the Port Arthur LNG project in Texas.

With regards to LNG-related inquiries from customers, the company sees a real increase in requests directed not only from Asia but from Europe and South America as well. In line with this, Sempra's long-term LNG development forecast suggests that the demand for LNG will grow between mid-to-high single digits.

Once marketing begins, Sempra's management expects Vista Pacifico to be oversubscribed.

Additionally, according to the company's analytics, there's a tremendous amount of recognition about the role of natural gas and specifically, LNG in Europe at the moment. And there's certainly a new risk premium being assigned to pipeline gas. This sentiment also plays a favorable role in the company's outlook.

In particular, October saw prices for natural gas in Europe and Asia reach record highs for the first time in a while. Delays in pipeline gas flowing from Russia is one of the reasons for such hasty change among the EU-nations politics as well as the reason behind boosted gas fees, as cited by the company's CEO.

Therefore Sempra Energy's comfortable position is a direct result of good market decisions, given that the company's capacity to deliver energy directly into Europe and Asia edges out most of its direct competitors in respective regions.

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13 years is not long enough: Glencore and Cheniere Sign Long-Term LNG Deal

Texas Cheniere and Swiss Glencore had entered into a free-on-board agreement for approximately 0.8 million tonnes of LNG per annum, starting in April 2023 for 13 consecutive years. This SPA demonstrates the commercial momentum Cheniere has been enjoying and marks an important milestone, as the company lays the groundwork for a final investment decision on Corpus Christi Stage 3, which is expected to occur next year.

Enterprise decided to go in on the Permian Basin. With the surprise purchase of Navitas Midstream for $3.25 billion in cash, the company gained a foothold in the Midland Basin, as it previously lacked #naturalgas or NGL infrastructure apart from downstream pipelines in the region. Enterprise estimates that distributable cash flow accretion will be in the range of $0.18 to $0.22 per unit in 2023, while simultaneously supporting additional capital returns to their limited partners through distribution growth and buybacks of common units.

Oil output in the Permian Basin in Texas and New Mexico is supposed to go up 88,000 bbl/d to a record 5.219 million bbl/d in June, as the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) announced in its report on May 16. Additionally, gas productivity in the Permian Basin and the Haynesville in Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas will rise to record highs of 20 Bcf/d and 15.1 Bcf/d in June, respectively. Given that this growth has been expected, recent global market changes make forecasting the output even more challenging. Learning how production will change is easier with early activity tracking, a new service recently launched by Rextag – Pad Activity Monitor. With the help of PAM, you are able to monitor well pad clearing, drilling operations, fracking crew deployment and completions with new data collected approximately every 2 days. Additionally, it cuts down activity reporting lag times by at least 98%, from 120-180 days down to just 5-8 days. In order to access reports, charts, tables, and mapping visualizations via Rextag’s Energy DataLink use a web-based application allowing users to filter, download and identify activity on a map or data table. Moreover, customers will be able to set up daily, weekly, and monthly email report notifications.

The EIA forecasts that total output in the main U.S. shale oil basins will increase 142,000 bbl/d to 8.761 million bbl/d in June, the most since March 2020. Oil productivity in the Permian Basin in Texas and New Mexico is supposed to go up 88,000 bbl/d to a record 5.219 million bbl/d in June, as the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) announced in its report on May 16. In the largest shale gas basin, the productivity in Appalachia in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia will grow up to 35.7 Bcf/d in June, its highest since beating a record 36 Bcf/d in December 2021. Gas output in the Permian Basin and the Haynesville in Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas will rise to record highs of 20 Bcf/d and 15.1 Bcf/d in June, respectively. Speaking of the Permian future output, putting hands on upcoming changes in production has recently been made easier with the new Rextag's service - Pad Activity Monitor. Thanks to satellite imagery and artificial intelligence, customers are able to monitor the oil and gas wells and are provided with near real-time activity reports related to drilling operations. However, it is noticed that productivity in the largest oil and gas basins has decreased every month since setting records of new oil well production per rig of 1,544 bbl/d in December 2020 in the Permian Basin, and new gas well production per rig of 33.3 MMcf/d in March 2021 in Appalachia.

No sooner had the crude prices soared above $100/bbl than the industry professionals believed in an incredible growth of drilling activity in North America’s largest shale patch. Analysts speculate that additional output of 500,000 barrels of oil daily would become a significant part (4%) of overall U.S. daily production. That is going to flatter oil and gasoline prices. Drilling permits in the Permian Basin are persistently growing, averaging approximately 210 at the beginning of April. Moreover, the permits trend is noticed as an all-time high as a total of 904 horizontal drilling permits were awarded last month. Nowadays, learning and analysing the current situation and predicting the future development become easier with early activity tracking, a new service recently launched by Rextag. Rextag's Pad Activity monitor (PAM) allows you to see well pad clearing, drilling operations, fracking crew deployment and completions with new data collected approximately every 2 days with the help of satellite imagery and artificial intelligence. While the increase in drilling will result in higher production, U.S. shale producers will have to overcome several hurdles including labor shortages and supply constraints.

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