Golden Pass

U.S. LNG was poised for a year of massive growth in 2024, with new terminals and expansions set to cause feedgas to rise and commercial success in the years following Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine set to spur further LNG project development. Instead, construction delays have pushed projects back and feedgas in the past three months has averaged about 500 MMcf/d less than the same period last year. Meanwhile, the Biden administration’s pause on non-free trade (FTA) export licenses, lengthy delays to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) authorization process and the resulting legal challenges to both have brought project development to a near-standstill. In today’s RBN blog, we look at current U.S. LNG feedgas demand and how construction delays have shifted expectations for the next few years. 

A year ago, as New Year’s Day approached, we were looking ahead into very uncertain market conditions, having lived through a pandemic, crazy weather events, collapsing and then soaring prices, and Russia’s horrific invasion of Ukraine. Our job was once again to peer into the RBN crystal ball to see what the upcoming year had in store for energy markets. We’ll do that again in our next blog. But another part of that tradition is to look back to see how we did with our forecasts for the previous year. That’s right! We actually check our work. And that’s exactly what we’ll do today: review our prognostications for 2023. 

The dam has broken on the “second wave” of U.S. LNG export projects. ExxonMobil and Qatar Petroleum last week announced a final investment decision on their joint venture liquefaction and export project — called Golden Pass Products — at the brownfield site of the Golden Pass LNG terminal on the Texas side of the Sabine-Neches Waterway. That’s a skipping stone’s throw from Cheniere Energy’s Sabine Pass LNG and Sempra Energy’s Cameron LNG terminals on the Louisiana side of the Gulf of Mexico outlet, as well as a number of other second-wave contenders. With construction slated to begin late next month, the Golden Pass project expects to become operational and begin taking feedgas by 2024. Today, we provide an update on Golden Pass, its potential feedgas needs and how it will be supplied.