LNG, here are the US companies that will (perhaps) sell it to Europe. The role of Blackrock
The United States has seven LNG export terminals. Here are the names of the main companies and their shareholders (in the front row often the Blackrock fund)
Last Friday the United States reached an agreement with the European Union to supply it, in collaboration with its "international partners", 15 billion cubic meters of liquefied gas (LNG) in 2022. LNG should serve to ease energy dependence of Brussels from Russia – which is worth almost 40 per cent of EU gas imports – and therefore to reduce the social and economic risks in the event of a supply interruption. However, this is an insufficient volume to replace the large amount of gas that Europe buys from Moscow: 155 billion cubic meters per year.
The concrete feasibility of the agreement is also questionable. There are two problems in relation to the United States. The country's export capacity is virtually saturated already, and will not grow significantly for a few years. And it is also not certain that American energy companies have an interest in selling their LNG in Europe: they do business where it is cheaper, where prices are higher (in Asia, generally) and profit opportunities are greater. The government cannot give orders to private companies, which do not answer to the White House but to shareholders.
ALL LNG DATA IN THE UNITED STATES
In December 2021, the United States became the largest liquefied gas exporter in the world , surpassing Qatar and Australia. In February 2022, their exports hit a record 13.3 billion cubic feet per day.
Normally, US LNG carriers go to Northeast Asia, because demand from countries in the area (such as Japan and South Korea) is strong and prices are high. The European energy crisis, which has caused the cost of natural gas and electricity to rise enormously also due to limited supplies from Russia, has however induced American energy companies to send their LNG to Europe. Last February, for example, gas on the European market had a cost of 56 dollars per million Btu, compared to 44 dollars in Asia. As the New York Times writes, in the first three months of 2022 almost three-quarters of American LNG went to Europe, compared to 34 percent in the whole of 2021.
It is not certain that the situation will remain unchanged, however, because last winter was mild in Asia; the countries of the region are now preparing to replenish their stocks in anticipation of the next cold season and could attract the LNG available on the market to them.
The United States is the largest producer of natural gas in the world, thanks to the abundant reserves contained in the shale fields scattered throughout the country, from Pennsylvania to Texas. However, production cannot find an outlet on the markets because the LNG export terminals – seven in all – are operating almost at their maximum capacity. To increase it, through the upgrading of plants or the construction of new ones, it takes time: two to three years, on average. A large terminal can cost as much as $ 1 billion, but obtaining funding from banks can be tricky at a time of transition to zero-carbon energy.
The 15 billion cubic meters that America and its partners would like to send to the European Union this year is equivalent to 1.5 billion cubic feet per day. Currently, the liquefaction capacity of the United States is 12.7 billion cubic feet of gas in the world.
THE LNG TERMINALS IN THE USA
There are seven LNG export terminals in the United States: Kenai, Alaska; in Sabine, Louisiana; at Cove Point, Maryland; in Corpus Christi, Texas; in Hackberry, Louisiana; on Elba Island, Georgia; in Freeport, Texas.
The most important, in terms of volumes managed, is that of Sabine, owned by Cheniere Energy.
In March, Venture Global LNG shipped the first shipments of liquefied gas from its Calcasieu Pass plant (in Cameron Parish, Louisiana), which will reach full capacity in 2023. Other companies – such as Tellurian, also in Louisiana – are planning to construction of export terminals.
AMERICAN COMPANIES THAT EXPORT LNG
The main American companies that export LNG are Cheniere Energy, Venture Global LNG, Tellurian, Sempra, Freeport LNG and Dominion Energy. Not all are listed.
The largest shareholders of Cheniere Energy are the funds Vanguard Group (8.3%) and BlackRock (6.8%), entrepreneur Carl Icahn (6.3%) and Blackstone (4.6%).
Shareholders of Tellurian include financial services firm State Street Corporation (6.5%), the BlackRock fund (5.9%), Vanguard Group (5%) and French oil company TotalEnergies .
BlackRock (9.2%), Vanguard Group (8.5%) and State Street (5.5%) are shareholders of Sempra. And they also own shares in Dominion Energy: 6.8 percent, 8.6 percent and 5.2 percent respectively .
Japanese energy company JERA, the company that buys the most LNG in the world, has a 25.7 percent stake in Freeport LNG.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/energia/gnl-usa-aziende-azionisti/ on Mon, 28 Mar 2022 10:18:47 +0000.