Unique global market impacts of North American LNG supply: Part Three
In order to highlight the considerations discussed in Part One and Part Two of this article, it is helpful to provide a brief overview of the proposed Jordan Cove LNG Export Project (Jordan Cove) in Southwest Oregon.
Located midway between San Francisco and Seattle, Jordan Cove (owned by Veresen Inc.) will be connected by a new 230-mile pipeline (Pacific Connector Gas Pipeline – equally owned by Veresen and Williams), to the existing gas trading hub at Malin, Oregon. The Malin hub is supplied by the Ruby and Gas Transmission Northwest (GTN) pipelines with a total capacity approaching 4 billion ft3/d (see Figure 1). Today, there is sufficient capacity on Ruby and GTN to supply Jordan Cove with the approximate 1 billion ft3/d of gas required to produce the initial liquefaction capacity of 6 million tpa. Jordan Cove’s business model is a tolling structure.
Figure 1.
Pacific connector gas pipeline
- 232-mile, 36 in. dia. (1480 psig MAOP), from Malin, or to Coos Bay.
- Initial design capacity of 1.1 billion ft3/d (includes potential gas delivery within Oregon and serves 6 million tpa LNG exports, expandable to meet Jordan Cove’s expansion to 9 million tpa LNG exports).
- Pipeline design and rights-of-way previously approved by FERC (2009).
- Owned equally by Veresen and Williams.
Jordan Cove LNG export terminal
- 6 million tpa facility expandable to 9 million tpa.
- 500-acre site includes:
- Two 160 000 m3 full containment LNG tanks.
- Marine facility.
- Liquefaction plant, gas treating.
- 420 MW power plant.
- Environmental reserve land.
- Berth design range: 89 000 m3 - 217 000 m3.
- Marine facilities, LNG tanks and site grading previously approved by FERC (2009).
- Owned 100% by Veresen.
Existing gas supply infrastructure
Jordan Cove and the associated Pacific Connector Gas Pipeline will provide a new gas market for oversupplied gas basins in the US Rockies and the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin (WCSB). Connecting to a trading hub supplied by two major interstate pipelines provides LNG tolling customers of Jordan Cove with many options to ensure a consistent gas supply. They will have access to existing pipeline gathering systems including the TransCanada, Fortis and Spectra gathering systems to access gas in Alberta and B.C., as well as the extensive US Rockies gathering systems and natural gas liquids extraction plants to access US Rocky Mountain region gas. The net gas oversupply to Malin hub greatly exceeds the new gas demand for Jordan Cove. The Jordan Cove business model is a TCM structure. Supply will come from countless gas fields and E&P operators underpinning upstream gas supply diversity for an LNG buyer. This upstream supply diversity is a unique benefit for LNG tolling customers who have traditionally relied on a single or few E&P operators to supply gas to a liquefaction plant. For example, at Bontang in Indonesia there are multiple gas suppliers and E&P operators while at Tangguh, Malaysia LNG, Brunei, Qatargas and RasGas there is a single E&P operator for each LNG facility (see Figure 2).
Figure 2.
In summary, Jordan Cove is situated sufficiently close to Asian LNG markets that the incremental costs (above the costs of converting an existing brownfield LNG import terminal in the USGC to export service) are more than offset by the cost savings of the shorter shipping distance to North Asia. In addition, the location reduces shipping risks by eliminating LNG-shipping-fleet-operational uncertainties of congestion at the Panama Canal and uncertainties associated with the Panama Canal tolls (see Figure 1).
Facility layout
Jordan Cove has a dedicated combined cycle gas turbine co-gen power-plant integrated with a gas treatment facility as the steam-host to provide super high availability of electric-drive compression through four 1.5 million tpa liquefaction trains using proven Black & Veatch Prico technology. As an integrated facility, the overall fuel consumption is designed as less than 8% including all fuel used in power generation. The integrated process/power/steam-host fuel requirements are essentially only boil-off gas (BOG) for all fuel needs including power generation during steady state operations. Steam is used for regeneration of the gas pre-treatment plant to create excellent thermal-efficiency for the overall plant with minimal environmental impact in this thoughtful design integration.
The Jordan Cove location in southwest Oregon is industrially zoned and enjoys local community support.*
Existing deep water port
Jordan Cove will be situated on an existing deep water port that is federally maintained by the US Army Corps of Engineers. The port had some 300 large-vessel calls annually about 20 years ago, but due to timber-industry contraction it now has less than 50 large-vessel calls per year. This leaves plenty of room for the increased traffic of some 90 annual vessel calls by LNG ships.
Note:
*For more information, visit www.BoostSouthwestOregon.org
Written by Guy Dayvault. Adapted to house style by Ted Monroe
Read Part One of this article: Unique global market impacts of North American LNG supply: Part One and Part Two: Unique global market impacts of North American LNG supply: Part Two.
The full version of this article is available in the April issue of LNG Industry.
Read the article online at: https://www.lngindustry.com/special-reports/23042014/part_three_jordan_cove_project_overview/
You might also like
EIA: US natural gas trade will continue to grow with the start-up of new LNG export projects
The U.S. Energy Information Administration’s recently released Short-Term Energy Outlook forecasts that US LNG exports will continue to lead growth in US natural gas trade as three LNG export projects currently under construction start operations and ramp up to full production by the end of 2025.
