Sempra LNG & Midstream president and CEO Octávio Simões recently sat down for an interview with Upstream about the Port Arthur LNG project, as the company continues to pursue long-term agreement with potential customers.
The article, published the week of GASTECH in Barcelona, Spain, focused on the many benefits of greenfield facilities like Port Arthur LNG. Simoes stated that Port Arthur LNG has the potential to be the lowest-cost export facility in the U.S. Gulf Coast as Sempra has aimed to keep costs low by focusing attention on the layout of the liquefaction trains and other facilities.
“On a greenfield you have an opportunity to optimize their location, the amount of cryogenic pipe, the height, the expensive pieces of equipment… There’s all kinds of decisions you make, including how to optimize the design to end up with very low cost,” he says in the article.
Simoes also highlighted the benefits of Sempra as an LNG and pipeline player. The company has access to a huge natural gas network across the country and the advantage of marketing experience, “I can tell you many people underestimated what it takes to become a gas supplier to a liquefaction facility in the US,” he adds.
“Many people are still underestimating that, and it’s a really bad situation when they discover it the hard way. The type of instruments, the type of organization, the type of resources, the type of physical positions you have to take in order to really manage, over the course of a year or several years, all of the ups and downs that a liquefaction facility experiences.”
He pointed that the key to managing potential supply hiccups at facilities is flexibility along the entire supply chain. “You need to create the supply chain between pipelines, underground storage facilities, customers. Flexible points, so that as upsets occur you can manage it without incurring significant losses.”
Read more in Upstream.
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