Australia's Global Energy Ventures (GEV) is moving closer to realising its export plans using a new $1.2bn fleet of compressed natural gas (CNG) vessels.
The ASX-listed company said it has selected a site at Port Sulphur near New Orleans in the US Gulf, next to existing gas pipeline infrastructure. A platform will be built offshore with compression and loading facilities capable of filling its CNG Optimum 200 ships in less than 24 hours.
It has signed a non-binding deal with Kinetica Partners for gas transport services to the site, and agreed undisclosed pricing for up to 400 million standard cubic feet per day of natural gas volumes over 15 years.
A binding contract is expected to be agreed in the fourth quarter.
The company expects to see 50% lower on-the-water costs than current US Gulf LNG export projects.
GEV chief executive Maurice Brand said the company would now continue discussions with "multiple regional markets/parties for gas offtake who have the financial capacity to support the US CNG export facility".
The company wants a site where most of the infrastructure it needs is already in place.
"There are multiple parties that have the capacity to supply the required gas volumes to GEV at Port Sulphur based on the Henry Hub gas pricing index," it said.
Order pushed back
Last month, the company pushed back the deadline to firm up its letter of intent for up to eight CNG vessels at Yantai CIMC Raffles Offshore in China.
GEV has four firm ships lined up, with options for four more.
A first marine application for CNG — in which gas is stored under pressure rather than being liquefied like LNG — has been the subject of several projects over the past 20 years.
GEV’s Optimum design is essentially a handymax-size hull filled with horizontally stacked, carbon-steel pipes about 100 metres long.
The bottom pipes are welded to the hull and those above held in place by pressure exerted from a series of jacks below the deck.
The capacity is equivalent to about 1.5m tonnes of LNG annually, in its 130 km of piping.
In February, GEV tasked two Clarksons companies with raising funds for a Brazilian scheme it hopes to launch.
It appointed Clarksons Platou Securities and Clarksons Platou Structured Asset Finance as brokers, financial advisors and lead managers for all debt and equity requirements relating to its debut move in Brazil.
