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Gold/Mining/Energy : LNG -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Dennis Roth who wrote (302)	12/20/2004 11:48:38 AM
From: Dennis Roth	Respond to of 919

Port approves LNG tax abatement By Elliott Blackburn The Facts Published December 20, 2004 thefacts.com PORT FREEPORT — Freeport LNG will get tax breaks from Port Freeport during the critical early years of the project after the port joined the county in supporting the project. Port commissioners unanimously approved Thursday a $298 million tax abatement for the Freeport liquefied natural gas project. Taxes on another $119 million related to pollution equipment for the project is deferred by other entities, Port Managing Director Phyllis Saathoff said.

To: Dennis Roth who wrote (302)	1/18/2005 9:25:22 AM
From: Dennis Roth	Respond to of 919

Mitsubishi to ship 1 mln tonnes LNG per yr to U.S. Tue Jan 18, 2005 04:01 AM ET reuters.com TOKYO, Jan 18 (Reuters) - Japanese trading house Mitsubishi Corp. (8058.T: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Tuesday it will start transporting 1 million tonnes of liquefied natural gas (LNG) per year to a terminal in Freeport in Texas and sell it to customers in that area, such as utilities, to tap into rising U.S. demand. A spokesman for Mitsubishi, Japan's biggest trading house, said it expects to seal a deal with U.S. company Freeport LNG Development L.P. to use the LNG terminal for 17 years from 2009. Freeport LNG is now building the terminal. "We expect to sign a deal later today," the spokesman said. Mitsubishi expects sales of LNG to be about $240-250 million a year, the spokesman said. It plans to transport 800,000 tonnes of LNG from Oman per year to the Texas terminal. The other 200,000 tonnes will come from elsewhere, but it has not decided the sources, he said. Mitsubishi has a contract with Oman's Qalhat LNG to buy 800,000 tonnes of LNG per year starting in 2006. The trading house also has a 20 percent interest in Royal/Dutch Shell Group-led (RD.AS: Quote, Profile, Research) (SHEL.L: Quote, Profile, Research) Sakhalin II project in Russia's Far East. Mitsubishi expects to soon receive approval from local authorities to build and start operating a $400 million LNG terminal on the U.S. West Coast by 2008. U.S. LNG imports are expected to rise to 99 million tonnes a year by 2025 from 11 million tonnes in 2003, according to the ASEAN Centre for Energy. LNG now accounts for about two percent of U.S. natural gas consumption. Increased demand for electricity in the U.S. is lifting demand for LNG to fuel new generating capacity. © Reuters 2005. All Rights Reserved.

To: Dennis Roth who wrote (302)	1/18/2005 11:46:03 AM
From: Dennis Roth	Respond to of 919

Freeport LNG Development, L.P. and MC Global Gas Corporation Execute 17-year LNG Terminal Use Agreement January 18, 2005 10:00 AM US Eastern Timezone home.businesswire.com HOUSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 18, 2005--Freeport LNG Development, L.P. announced today that it executed a 17-year terminal use agreement (TUA) with MC Global Gas Corporation, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Mitsubishi Corporation. The agreement is for 150 million cubic feet per day (mmcf/d) (approximately 1 million tons of LNG per year) of throughput capacity at Freeport LNG's liquefied natural gas (LNG) receiving terminal, located in Quintana, Texas, starting from Jan. 1, 2009. MC Global Gas Corporation has an option to increase the total capacity by an additional 100 mmcf/d, to a total of 250 mmcf/d. On July 1, 2004, Mitsubishi Corporation concluded an LNG Sale and Purchase Agreement (SPA) with Qalhat LNG in Oman. A portion of the throughput capacity at Freeport LNG's terminal will be used for importing LNG purchased under the SPA. "We are pleased that this Mitsubishi subsidiary has executed a firm agreement to utilize capacity at the Freeport LNG terminal," said Michael S. Smith, CEO of Freeport LNG Development, LP. "As a customer of the terminal, MC Global Gas Corporation will further diversify the gas supply available to Texas and the broader US natural gas markets. Mitsubishi is one of the largest LNG suppliers in the world, and we are proud to have them as a participant in this project." On Jan. 11, 2005, Freeport LNG Development, L.P. received its authorization to commence construction of the first phase of its terminal from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). Construction of the permitted 1.5 Bcf/d facility commenced on Monday, Jan. 17, 2005. The EPC contractor is a consortium of Technip USA, Zachry Construction of San Antonio, and Saipem SpA of Italy. The capacity of the first phase has been fully sold on a long-term basis to ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) (1 bcf/d) and The Dow Chemical Company (NYSE:DOW) (0.5 bcf/d). Freeport LNG Development, L.P. is filing federal and state permit applications in the first quarter of 2005 for a significant expansion of the terminal. The expansion would provide for up to approximately double the vaporization capacity, a second berth, and additional storage. "Along with ConocoPhillips' options for up to 500 mmcf/d of additional capacity, the long-term contract with MC Global Gas Corporation moves us closer to selling out of the second phase of our project," said Smith. He added, "Long-term natural gas demand in Texas and the U.S. continues to outpace our supply prospects. We are pursuing this expansion in response to continued demand for capacity in the Freeport LNG terminal as end-users and suppliers alike see LNG imports as key to bringing balance to the U.S. gas market." Freeport LNG Development, LP is a Delaware limited partnership whose general partner Freeport LNG-GP, Inc. is owned by Michael S. Smith (50 percent) and ConocoPhillips (50 percent). The partnership's limited partners are Freeport LNG Investments, LLLP (45 percent); Cheniere Energy (AMEX:LNG) (30 percent); Texas LNG Holdings, LLC, a subsidiary of The Dow Chemical Company (15 percent), and Contango Oil & Gas (AMEX:MCF) (10 percent). Contacts Freeport LNG Development, L.P., Houston Charles Reimer, 713-980-2888

To: Dennis Roth who wrote (302)	1/19/2005 6:58:14 AM
From: Dennis Roth	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 919

LNG plant is already too small Before building begins, developer asks to double size By LYNN J. COOK Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle chron.com One week after federal regulators said construction could begin on the massive regasification terminal in Quintana, the owner is trying to double the size of that project. Freeport LNG Development said Tuesday it has signed a 17-year agreement with Mitsubishi Corp. to take 150 million cubic feet of liquefied natural gas a day, shipped from abroad and turned into gas in the United States. The Mitsubishi deal calls for a Tokyo-based subsidiary, MC Global Gas, to start paying for that LNG beginning Jan. 1, 2009. Mitsubishi, which handles 25 percent of the global LNG trade, has the option of taking as much as 250 million cubic feet of gas per day. A large portion of that LNG would come from Oman, where MC Global Gas signed a deal last summer with Qalhat LNG. But to deliver on that deal, the scale of the project would have to expand. ConocoPhillips has also optioned 500 million cubic feet of gas from the proposed expansion, bringing the partnership a long way toward filling up customer rosters for phase two, according to Freeport LNG Chairman Michael Smith. As it stands, ConocoPhillips and Dow Chemical, both of which are partners in the project, have agreed to buy the entire 1.5 billion cubic feet of capacity that has already been planned and permitted for the first phase of the Quintana regasification facility. Smith got into the LNG business after selling his Denver-based company, Basin Exploration, to Stone Energy for $410 million in 2001. He says Basin's declining success in shallow-water gas fields of the Gulf of Mexico convinced him LNG development would take off. "If 23 percent of our natural gas supply comes from a rapidly playing out shelf, then we have a situation that's going to be desperate in the United States." Freeport LNG, which applied to build the regasification facility in Quintana in 2003, passed its final regulatory hurdle on Jan. 11 when the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission said it could start building. The Houston-based liquefied natural gas partnership broke ground Monday and is applying for expansion permits.

To: Dennis Roth who wrote (302)	11/20/2005 8:45:00 AM
From: Dennis Roth	Respond to of 919

Freeport LNG facility steadily taking shape Published November 20, 2005 thefacts.com Excerpt: A sign inside Quintana construction offices announces the workers’ ever-present deadline: 108 weeks until commercial gas sales. Scheduled to be complete in 2008, Freeport LNG’s first phase will have a combined storage capacity of nearly 7 billion cubic feet and a vaporization send-out of 1.5 billion cubic feet per day. That’s enough to serve 4.5 million houses with natural gas for one year, Henry said. All the LNG that can be stored in the first phase already is under contract. Dow Chemical Co. and ConocoPhillips purchased 100 percent of the terminal’s available output more than a year before final approval was received. ConocoPhillips’ contract includes an option for an additional 500 million cubic feet of LNG a day. Ongoing negotiations with potential clients for “substantial volumes” demonstrates the demand for the second phase, Henry said. The company might announce deals within the next year, he said. The permitting processes are in various stages for the second phase that would add a second berth, increase storage capacity to 9 billion cubic feet per day and increase output capacity to almost 4 billion cubic feet per day, Henry said. Permits for the second phase were filed with FERC in May and, with a smooth process, they are expected to be approved in mid-2006, Henry said. To eventually get to customers, construction will start in April on the 9.7-mile pipeline that will connect at Stratton Ridge Road to a major nexus for pipeline systems within Texas, according to company literature. The 42-inch pipeline will be buried 100 feet underneath Port Freeport’s channel to Surfside. From there, it will follow an existing underground route through Surfside, and then pass under the Intracoastal Canal, Henry said. The pipe will zig-zag across marshland until FM 523 near Stratton Ridge Road, where the gas will be stored in a leased salt cavern, he said. The entire pipeline should be laid by November 2007.