The U.S. Department of Energy has announced $30 million in federal funding to support cost-shared research and development for front-end engineering design, or FEED, studies for carbon dioxide capture systems. Funded by the Office of Fossil Energy’s Carbon Capture program, the projects will support FEED studies for these systems on natural gas and coal power plants. According to a DOE news release, supporting FEED studies for commercial carbon capture systems is essential to understanding the systems’ costs and next steps toward wide-scale deployment of carbon capture, utilization and storage technologies. “With the department’s ongoing investment in advanced carbon-capture technologies,” said Undersecretary of Energy Mark W. Menezes, “we will ensure that we can continue using our abundant domestic resources to power the nation in a way that’s environmentally sound.”
Last year, natural gas production reached record levels, according to the Energy Information Administration’s Monthly Crude Oil, Lease Condensate, and Natural Gas Production Report. The report revealed that natural gas production increased by 10 billion cubic feet per day in 2018—an 11 percent rise from 2017. This is the second consecutive year that production has reached a new high, with the Appalachian region remaining the largest-producing region in the United States. Furthermore, natural gas export volume grew for the fourth consecutive year in 2018, according to the report, reaching 9.9 Bcf/d. Total exports rose 14 percent, and liquefied natural gas exports were essential to the substantial growth, as LNG exports skyrocketed by 53 percent to 3 Bcf/d.
Several U.S. natural gas projects will be coming online in the next few years, and that means the fleet of global liquefied natural gas tankers could grow by as much as a third. While more expensive to build than other ships—about $175 million apiece—LNG-outfitted ships could be the vessel of choice for the profitable shipping trade, especially as demand grows in Asia and production rises in the United States. “We are moving into an era where fossil fuels will be reduced in the energy mixture, and LNG will be used extensively in the transitional period where more clean forms of energy can be developed,” said shipowner George Prokopiou, chairman of Dynagas LNG. “If you are in shipping, you can’t ignore LNG.”
Despite a plan by the U.K. government to ban heating new homes with fossil fuels by 2025, natural gas is expected to continue heating homes for a “long time,” according to an analysis by policy consultancy Cambridge Econometrics and Radboud University. The reported expectation is a result of the long lifetime of existing homes’ heating systems and boilers. The analysis also cautioned that some homeowners may be reluctant to shift to more efficient condensing gas boilers now because of fear the technology might be phased out by 2025. Instead, boilers might be replaced with electric systems that would put additional pressure on a grid that’s already struggling to cope with current demand, according to the paper. The analysis was part of an evaluation of the Future Homes Standard, which was announced as part of U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond’s Spring Statement.
Energía Costa Azul LNG, a subsidiary of Sempra Energy, received two authorizations from the U.S. Department of Energy to export U.S.-produced natural gas to Mexico and re-export liquefied natural gas to countries that do not have a free trade agreement with the United States. The re-exported LNG would be sent out from ECA’s Phase 1 and Phase 2 liquefaction export facilities in development in Baja California, Mexico. DOE authorizations currently allow the export of 636 billion cubic feet per year of U.S.-sourced LNG from these Mexican infrastructure projects. Phase 2 of the facility development would require further authorization from the DOE to allow for the export of its full capacity of U.S.-produced LNG.
Qatar Petroleum, the state-funded largest natural gas exporter in the world, is looking to stay atop the leaderboard with new contracts to increase production. By 2024, the company wants to enhance production by 110 million metric tons per year, from its current 77 mmt/y. QP plans to increase productivity by developing more reserves in the North Field, an area shared with Iran that’s considered the largest gas field in the world. The company plans to boost liquefaction capacity by 43 percent and is aiming to add a fourth liquefaction train at the site. Contracts have already been awarded for installing offshore jackets and for preparing for four liquefied natural gas trains in Ras Laffan Industrial City. According to QP CEO Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, the company is also “in the tendering phase for eight rigs for the development drilling.”
New Mexico’s Environment Department has launched an interactive online map that shows various levels of methane emissions from the oil and natural gas industry. The map displays thousands of oil and gas facilities regulated by the department’s Air Quality Bureau and can show users which producers are going “above and beyond to reduce emissions and which are falling behind,” according to New Mexico Environment Secretary James Kenney. According to a department news release, the map also will help to track progress of Gov. Michele Lujan Grisham’s executive order that addresses climate change and energy waste prevention. About two-thirds of methane emissions are linked to sources including livestock, landfills, wastewater treatment plants and natural wetlands, with the remaining one-third linked to the oil and gas industry, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Lujan Grisham has said that by 2030, the state hopes to lower greenhouse gas emissions by at least 45 percent.
Several American Gas Association members received a perfect score on the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s 2019 Corporate Equality Index, the nation’s premier benchmarking survey and report on corporate policies related to LGBTQ workplace equality. Among the AGA full members that scored the highest-possible 100 points on the report are Alliant Energy Corp., Ameren Corp., Dominion Energy, Duke Energy Corp., Exelon Corp., PG&E Corp., PPL Corporation, Sempra Energy, Southern Company and Xcel Energy Inc. Factors that determine a company’s score include nondiscrimination policies, benefit equality, organizational competency in LGBTQ inclusion and public commitment. “The top-scoring companies on this year’s CEI are not only establishing policies that affirm and include employees here in the United States,” HRC President Chad Griffin said in the report, “they are applying these policies to their global operations and impacting millions of people beyond our shores.”
U.S. Sens. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., Bill Cassidy, R-La., and John Kennedy, R-La., reintroduced a bill that would help to expedite small-scale natural gas export approvals, particularly approvals to export liquified natural gas. The Small Scale LNG Access Act pertains to exports of 51.1 billion cubic feet per year or less, and its aim is to benefit consumers in markets such as the Caribbean and Central and South America while providing long-term investment stability. All three senators have pointed to job creation as another benefit to passing this bill. “This bill unleashes American natural gas potential, creating well-paying jobs with good benefits for families in Louisiana,” said Cassidy, who’s also the chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Subcommittee on Energy. “Increasing small-scale natural gas shipments creates American jobs, improves Caribbean energy security and lowers greenhouse gas emissions as nations transition to clean-burning natural gas.”