Future incremental Chinese demand for LNG will be met first from Australia and next by expansions to already approved US plants, Hans Kristian Danielsen, DNV GL Oil & Gas sales director and vice-president for marketing, told Oil & Gas Journal at the World Gas Conference in Washington, DC. Chinese demand growth not met by these two supply sources would fall to greenfield developments in the US, Australia, and elsewhere, Danielsen continued.
Danielsen mentioned both Cameron LNG in Hackberry, La., and Cheniere Energy’s Sabine Pass LNG plant as possible US sources of shipments to China. Cameron LNG’s liquefaction plant, currently under construction and scheduled to put its roughly 5 million-tonne/year Train 1 into service by yearend 2019, will have a total export capacity of 14.95 million tpy (2.1 bcfd of natural gas) from its first three trains.
A planned two-train expansion would increase capacity to 24.92 million tpy. The expansion has received necessary authorizations from both the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and Department of Energy, but Cameron LNG’s partners—Sempra LNG & Midstream, Mitsui & Co., Mitsubishi Corp., Engie, and NYK Line—have not yet decided to expand.
Sabine Pass LNG has four trains in operation and expects Train 5 to enter service in second-quarter 2019. A sixth train is also planned, but without a published timeline. Each train has a 4.5 million-tpy capacity, totaling an eventual 27 million tpy.
Cheniere also has made a final investment decision on Train 3 at its Corpus Christi, Tex., liquefaction project, adding 4.5 million tpy to an already planned 9 million-tpy site. Trains 1 and 2 are expected to enter service in 2019. No timeline is in place for Train 3.
The success of any of these Gulf Coast projects also will depend on relieving pipeline bottlenecks between US production basins and the potential export locations.
Woodside Petroleum Ltd.’s Scarborough gas field would be a primary candidate to meet continued increases in Chinese demand, Danielsen noted. Woodside earlier this year acquired ExxonMobil Corp.’s 50% interest in retention lease WA-1-R offshore western Australia, containing most of the yet-to-be-developed field (OGJ Online, Feb. 14, 2018). The acquisition raised Woodside’s stake to 75%, with BHP Billiton holding the balance.
Woodside will also be adding a second production train (5 million tpy) at its Pluto liquefaction plant to handle Scarborough’s output. The company expects to start production from the field in 2023, with the expanded capacity at Pluto starting a year later. Gas would be liquified in the interim at the North West Shelf joint ventures’s Karratha plant. Expected cost for Scarborough’s development and Pluto’s expansion is $9.7 billion.