Exports approved for Kinder Morgan project
Kinder Morgan’s Gulf LNG in Mississippi took another step forward after the U.S. Department of Energy issued an order authorizing exports from the proposed liquefied natural gas terminal.
Department of Energy officials granted Gulf LNG permission to export up to 1.53 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day from the Pascagoula, Miss., site. The order allows Kinder Morgan to export LNG to nonfree-tradeagreement nations such as China, Japan, South Korea and France where prices commodity prices are higher.
“This announcement advances the Trump administration’s commitment to energy security here at home and for our friends abroad,” Energy Secretary Rick Perry said in a statement. “Increased amounts of U.S. LNG on the world market benefit the American economy, American workers and consumers, and help make the air cleaner around the globe.”
Kinder Morgan originally developed the 230-acre Gulf LNG site as a liquefied natural gas import terminal in 2009. But with record production from U.S. shale plays creating a surplus of natural gas, the Houston pipeline began the federal application process in July 2015 to redevelop part of the site as an export terminal.
With a construction and export permits, Kinder Morgan
must still make a final investment decision for the Gulf Coast project.
“We are pleased with the Department of Energy’s approval of the liquefaction project at our existing Gulf LNG facility,” the company said in a statement. “While this is an important step, there are still multiple factors that need to be met before reaching a final investment decision needed to begin this project.”
If built, Gulf LNG would become the second liquefied natural gas export terminal developed by Kinder Morgan. Construction at the company’s Elba Island LNG export terminal in Savannah,
Ga., is largely complete, but crews are still preparing the facility for production and tanker shipments.
Kinder Morgan is betting on natural gas in 2019. The company plans to spend more than two-thirds of the $3.1 billion it has set aside for new projects on infrastructure to ship natural gas to customers both in the United States and abroad.
In addition to the LNG projects in Georgia and Mississippi, Kinder Morgan plans to build three natural gas pipelines linking the Permian Basin of West Texas to customers, processing plants and export terminals along the Gulf Coast.
Domestic and international demand for U.S. natural gas is expected to grow from 8 billion cubic feet per day in 2018 to more than 29 billion cubic feet per day in 2030, figures from global energy research firm Wood Mackenzie show.
“All of this expanded demand has to be connected with our growing supply basins, and that’s where midstream companies like Kinder Morgan are key,” Kinder Morgan Chairman Richard Kinder told investors in January. “Our network of 70,000 miles of natural gas pipeline, which moves about 40 percent of throughput in this country, is uniquely positioned to maximize our current capacity.”