Colluding With The Russians -- With Whom We Have Sanctions -- When Boston Is Not Burning Oil Brought In From Outside The US, It's Burning Natural Gas From Russia's Siberia -- January 8, 2018

Updates

January 10, 2018: see this link for tracking this vessel mentioned in the update following.

January 10, 2018: they must be reading the blog, LOL. Reuters is reporting that "US may get first LNG from Russia despite sanctions --

A vessel that may be carrying liquefied natural gas from Russia's new Yamal LNG export terminal could be heading to the United States despite sanctions against the company that operates the Russian facility.

The tanker Chris. De Margerie picked up a cargo from Novatek PAO's Yamal facility, Russia's second LNG export terminal, on Dec. 9 and dropped it off at National Grid Plc's Isle of Grain LNG facility near London on Dec. 28, according to Thomson Reuters data.
Since then, Engie SA's Gaselys LNG tanker picked up LNG from the UK facility on Dec. 30 and is expected to arrive in Boston on Jan. 22.

It is possible that some of the LNG on the Gaselys is from Yamal, according to a report by S&P Global Platts. Reuters has not independently verified that report, but the shipping data does show the routes the tankers are taking. The final destination could change.

Later, 2:30 p.m. CT: from a reader, follow the money, the jobs, the politics; this is nothing about saving the environment:

There has been a somewhat trivial 24 inch, 175 mile long pipeline called the Pilgrim Pipeline proposed to run from Albany to the refineries in Linden, NJ.

This pipeline was slated to colocate with existing Right of Ways (electrical transmission lines, roads, etc) for maybe 80/90% of its route. 

Products would be Bakken oil brought in by CBR and heating fuel, gasoline and other refined products brought back north. 

No more dramatic ice breaking to deliver life -ustaining fuel.

Pipeline never approved. 

Original Post

This story is so incredible on so many levels, it needs reposting. From Bloomberg:

Not many people had expected the U.S. to turn to Europe for natural gas this winter.
Yet the polar chill that gripped the U.S. East Coast this month, and sent spot prices to records, has led to a tanker loading a cargo of liquefied natural gas in the U.K. for Boston, some of which was likely produced by a project in Siberia targeted by U.S. financial curbs.

The Gaselys tanker is due to arrive in Boston on Jan. 22 after loading fuel from storage tanks at the U.K.’s Isle of Grain, according to ship-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg. The vessel docked at Grain shortly after the terminal near London received the first cargo from the $27 billion Yamal LNG plant in Russia’s icy north. 

“Gas from anywhere is profitable into that northeastern U.S. gas market as prices are the highest in the world,” said Trevor Sikorski, head of natural gas, coal and carbon at Energy Aspects Ltd. in London.

The arrival from the U.K. would make it the first LNG reload into the U.S. since a cargo from the tanks of the Huelva terminal in Spain was imported in June 2014, according to data through October from the U.S. Department of Energy. U.S. imports of the super-chilled fuel, mostly into Boston from Trinidad and Tobago, have dropped since exports started from the Gulf of Mexico coast in 2016.

Isle of Grain terminal operator National Grid Plc said it doesn’t comment on the intentions of gas shippers using its facilities. It’s not immediately clear who owns the cargo. [But pretty easy to guess.]

U.S. domestic demand climbed to a record last week as snow and winds bombarded Americans on the East Coast. Temperatures tonight in Boston may fall to as low as 15 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 9 degrees Celsius), with a cold outlook persisting through this month, according to AccuWeather Inc.

I wonder what ol' Ben Franklin would think of this craziness. I think he was close enough to ride a horse, or even walk, to the Marcellus fields west of Boston.

********************************

The Road To Australia

And at the other end of the spectrum, now it's Australia paying upwards of $500/MWh for electricity in sweltering weather. Dynamic link here.

Renewable energy and Elon Musk's batteries apparently were not the answer ...