This is music to my ears... Texas LNG, an aspiring 4mt terminal looking to be built in Brownsville... has signed 8 non-binding deals with potential buyers in China, Southeast Asia and Europe. They include 5 in China, 2 in Southeast Asia, 1 in Europe... and in January 2017, 4 of those non-binding contracts were for 20yr term sheets for a total of 3.1mt. 6 out of the 8 have import terminals today!
The project will be constructed over 2 phases with phase 1 to be completed by 2023. Texas LNG pre filed with FERC March 2015 then on March 31 2016 formally filed its application. If the regulatory process went smoothly, it would be on par with Rio Grande with commissioning to be initiated late 2018 or mid 2019. But the company is having all sorts of problems with FERC presenting a vast array of requests (engineering data requests x 3, environmental data requests x 6, geotechnical data x 1) since July 8 2016 through till February 2018... so its safe to say their ambitions have come to a screeching halt, for the time being.
If this minnow has contracts lined up with the mighty Chinese & Southeast Asia, one would certainly presume Magnolia has secured a plethora of deals of the non-binding nature.
Also hearing about Sinopec, who currently owns 3 commisioned terminals in Tianjin (3mt), Qingdao (3mt) and Guangxi (3mt), wishing to expand to 26mt by 2023 was very welcoming news. Expanding Tianjin & Qingdao by a further 9mt each just highlights the insatiable thirst for LNG in the country.
Think we need to send a carton of MOET to President Xi Jinping and the NEA for bringing in the coal to LNG policy on the 17th of January 2017. On this day the 13th 5 Year Plan on energy development, which represents the outline for China's energy policy from 2016 - 2020, suspended 85 planned coal fired plants, even the ones under construction. This was such an important policy change for planned US export terminals considering Japan & South Korea have slowed their contracting, both needing to support the building of new infrastructure. Would of been heavily reliant upon India, Pakistan, Indonesia and Europe but those markets are not growing at the exponential rate of China... imagine the fight on our hands then to secure customers.
Despite the ongoing, drawn out, tormenting quietness... we're still blessed to be in the position we find ourselves in...
Expand
