Most Amazing Factoid Of The Day -- GDP Around The World -- November 25, 2025

Locator: 49800GDP. 

GDP.

Saudi Arabia: per capita, $24,000.

Texas: per capital, $88,000.

 

California: per capital: $102,000 

California Fiscal Outlook: link here.

Texas LG Pipeline Buildout -- November 23, 2025

Locator: 49786TEXASPIPELINES.

Tag: Permian. 

Nothing new here but this helps me understand the numbers associated with NG, LNG, pipelines, etc.

Link here. 

See also a downloadable map at the Oil & Gas Journal: link here.

Venture Global -- LNG Exports -- Setting Records -- November 11, 2025

Locator: 49395LNG. 

Link here. 

I have no position in this company, never have, unlikely I ever will.

I am posting this to help me keep track of LNG export facilities.  

From the linked article:

U.S. LNG exporter Venture Global booked a net income for the third quarter, compared to a loss a year earlier, as revenues and LNG exports soared amid rising liquefaction capacity at its plants.

Venture Global, the second-largest U.S. LNG exporter behind Cheniere, on Monday, November 10, 2025, reported a net income attributable to common stockholders of $429 million for the third quarter, versus a loss of $347 million for the same period of 2024. Wow.

Revenues soared by 260% and income from operations surged by 598% as Venture Global’s exported LNG volumes jumped by 237% to 100 cargoes in the third quarter of 2025, up from 31 cargoes exported in the same period last year.

Venture Global has been ramping up its Plaquemines export project, and 34 of 36 liquefaction trains at the site are now producing LNG.

34 of 36 trains! Wow.

Tracking LNG export, US vs Qatar:

NextDecade Completes Commercialization of Rio Grande LNG Train 5 -- September 8, 2025

Locator: 49043LNG.

Tag: Ben Franklin, US revolutionary war.

Link here.

NextDecade completes the commercialization of Rio Grande LNG Train 5 with 1.0 MTPA LNG sale and purchase agreement with ConocoPhillips.

Train 5 commercialization is now complete, positive final investment decision expected in fourth quarter 2025.

NextDecade Corporation announced today that it has executed a 20-year liquefied natural gas (LNG) sale and purchase agreement (SPA) with ConocoPhillips for offtake from Rio Grande LNG Train 5.

ConocoPhillips will purchase 1.0 MTPA of LNG for 20 years on a free on board basis at a price indexed to Henry Hub, subject to NextDecade making a positive final investment decision (FID) on Train 5.

**************************
The Book Page

Wow, wow, wow!

Link to The Wall Street Journal. 

This is a very, very long article and dovetails wiht many biographies of Ben Franklin of which I have read. This is truly spectacular. 

US Natural Gas Exports -- July 31, 2025

Locator: 48736LNG.

Link here.

Texas Electricity Demand Growth; Eastern US Natural Gas Increasingly Meets LNG-Fueled Demand Growth -- EIA -- July 31, 2025

Locator: 48730NG.

Texas.

Link here.

Northeast.

Link here.

North American LNG Export Facilities -- An Update -- EIA -- From December, 2024 -- Posted June 6, 2025

Locator: 48699LNG.

A reminder: the AI story is an energy story.

Another aha: the renewable energy story is driven by ideology. We'll explore the implications of that in a separate blog.

So, two energy truisms:

• the AI story is an energy story;
• the renewable energy story is driven by ideology.

Link here. 

Time period: end of of 2024 through 2028 -- essentially three years. 

North America looks to double LNG exports over the next three years -- most of it from the US:

Amount of exports from various export terminals:

Compare this chart with previous graphics. 

It's easy to forget that not many years ago, the US was a net importer of natural gas. From the 1970s through the 1980s, the US began importing LNG in small quantities due to energy crises (plural) and limited domestic natural gas supply.

Then, in the 1990s, extending into the early 2000s, imports increased, especially as domestic natural gas declined and demand rose.

"Early 2000s": important dates:

• the Bakken revolution began in the year 2000 with economic development of the Bakken began in the year 2000;
• the Bakken revolution took a great leap forward in the year 2007 with the "discovery" Bakken well in the Parshall oil field by EOG.
• the Bakken entered its "stride" in 2010 to 2012, at the same time the Permian was beginning to be developed.
• at the same, natural gas fields were being developed in the Haynesville, (Permian), (Eagle Ford), the Utica, and the Marcellus.

Update: Sempra's Port Arthur LNG Phase 2 -- Approved -- Biden's Pause Has Come To A Stop -- Another Trump Win -- May 29, 2025

Locator: 48715LNG.

The project at this link. Once completed, this webpage will probably disappear.

Link here. 

Sempra said Thursday the U.S. Department of Energy issued a permit allowing its Port Arthur LNG Phase 2 development project in Texas to export of up to ~13.5M metric tons/year of liquefied natural gas to markets in Europe and Asia. 

The Phase 2 project is expected to include two liquefaction trains capable of producing ~13M metric tons/year of LNG, which would increase the total liquefaction capacity of the Port Arthur LNG facility from 13M tons/year for Phase 1, which is currently under construction, to as much as 26M tons/year. 

Port Arthur LNG Phase 2, which still needs a final investment decision, is expected to export 1.91B cf/day once completed; Phase 1 is expected to begin exporting LNG in 2027. Based on the graphic below, it suggests Phase 1 is / was ahead of schedule.

Phase 2 is the first final LNG export approval under President Trump, who reversed the Biden administration's pause on project approvals.

From May 14, 2025: link here.

Five New Permits; Three DUCs Reported As Completed -- Wednesday, May 28, 2025

Locator: 48704B.

Measles outbreak in Texas: starting to burn itself out. Link here.

Nvidia's long coat-tails: futures don't mean squat but nonetheless, it is what it is --

California bullet train: losing support from more and more California politicos. Most will be dead or out of office by the time the first significant leg is even running. Link here. Newsom's reason for keeping it: "too late to cancel." Wasn't that the British attitude in WWI? We've spent too much to quit now.

Paramount willing to settle for $15 million to settle CBS suit with President Trump. Trump's team wants $25 million+. The art of negotiation.

Driftwood LNG has a new name: Louisiana LNG. Yeah, that's the name: Louisiana LNG. Link to David Messler over at oilprice.

Woodside Energy, (NYSE:WDS), Australia’s largest energy operator, has moved into the North American LNG market in a big way over the last 6-9 months.

Beginning with its take-out of troubled LNG startup, Tellurian last fall, the company has moved at breakneck pace to move the fully permitted Driftwood LNG project along to FID.

Just last month Woodside stunned the investing community by announcing FID approval for the first three trains of the 27.6 mpta Driftwood, now renamed Louisiana LNG.

This is a bold move for this Australian energy producer that will bring on-line 16.5 mpta. From a press release, from the CEO:

“Louisiana LNG is a game changer for Woodside, set to position our company as a global LNG powerhouse and deliver enduring shareholder value for decades to come. Louisiana LNG combines access to an abundant US gas resource, a prime location with best-in-class EPC and technology partners. It builds on Woodside’s proven strengths in project execution, operational excellence, and LNG marketing to deliver significant cash generation potential and drive long-term shareholder value."

But look at this: 

Some challenges remain as only about 1 mpta of the plant’s approved 16.5 mpta output has been placed under long-term SPA’s (Sales and Purchase Agreement), in a contract with Uniper-a, a German utility company.

Other recent U.S. Gulf Coast LNG plants, notably Venture Global, and NextDecade, took the route of selling out 2/3 of their capacity before taking FID.

By moving forward and entering the market in the late 2020s, WDS can leapfrog other potential projects and corner the market for supply gas.

************************************
Back to the Bakken

WTI: $61.97.

Active rigs: 33.

Five new permits, #41959 - #41963, inclusive:

• Operators: Kraken (4); Petro-Hunt.
• Fields: Boxcar Butte (McKenzie County); West Ambrose (Divide County)
• Comments:
• Petro-Hunt has a permit for a State well, NENW 16-162-100; 
• to be sited 352 FNL and 2078 FWL;
• Kraken has permits for four Charity wells, SWSE 31-148-102 and SESW 31-149-101;
  
• with three sited 448 FSL and 2571 / 2637 FEL; and one sited 448 FSL and 2607 FWL.

Two permits renewed:

• Formentera Operations, FLX3 (#34950) and PTL4 (#34952).

Producing wells (DUCs) reported as completed:

• 33070, 1,168, BR, Mancord 14-10 MBH-ULW, Dunn County;
• 40780, 1,168, Oasis, Barnes Federal 5202 43-11 4B, McKenzie County;
• 40877, 683, Oasis, Barnes Federal 5202 43-11 5B, McKenzie County;

Venture Global: Top US LNG Firm With CP2 Project Approval -- Charles Kennedy -- May 23, 2025

Locator: 48659LNG.

Link here.

Venture Global is on track to surpass Cheniere Energy to become the biggest U.S. LNG company by liquefaction capacity if regulators approve the CP2 export project.

Venture Global is urging the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to greenlight its third liquefaction plant, CP2 in Louisiana, by the middle of the year.

The CP2 LNG facility will be located adjacent to Venture Global’s Calcasieu Pass LNG facility in Cameron Parish, Louisiana.

CP2 LNG was initially proposed to be a facility with a capacity of 20 million metric tons per annum (mtpa), but Venture Global has raised the maximum capacity to 28 mtpa.

Venture Global’s two operational LNG export terminals, Calcasieu Pass and Plaquemines, have a combined capacity of 38.5 mtpa. CP2 would add another 28 mtpa and raise the company’s total export capacity to 66.5 mtpa, above Cheniere’s 60 mtpa.

Venture Global more than doubled its first-quarter revenue from a year earlier as its Plaquemines and Calcasieu Pass plants have launched operations and exports in recent months.

Last month, Venture Global started contractual deliveries from its first LNG export project, Calcasieu Pass, to its long-term customers amid an ongoing dispute with major oil and gas firms over the delays to the official commercial operations date at the export project. 

Much more at the link.

*************************
LNG Termainals

From May 14, 2025: link here.

****************************************
North American LNG Project Tracker

Flashback: from November 6, 2023.

Locator: 45962LNG.     

Link here. 

"We Own 70% Of That" -- Qatar -- Golden Pass -- Update -- May 14, 2025

Locator: 48582GP.

Updates

May 14, 2025: Golden Pass update. Link here.

Golden Pass #LNG timing update.

"We [Qatar] own 70% of that. But these projects take time to actually deliver and we expect first LNG to come by the end of this year (2025) and hopefully to inaugurate officially the project in the 1st qt of 26,"  Qatari Energy Minister.
.

This is for Train 1 of 0.68 bcf/d. No ETA for Train 2 and Train 3 start.

That $400 million Boeing? Probably paid for in several weeks. LOL.  Best part? Trump living rent-free in Schumer's brain.

Original Post 

From March 4, 2025:

March 5, 2025 -- link here. This was the extension that the project needed -- back in March, 2025 -- thank you, Mr Trump and Mr Biden. The FERC commissioners. If I have this correct, three of the four were appointed by President Biden in 2024, and the current chairman was appointed by President Trump during the latter's first term in 2021. Link here.

April 28, 2025 -- within Trump's first 100 days! Another win for Trump. 

Link here.

Saudi - Trump: A Trillion Dollars In Deals In Two Days? -- May 14, 2025

Locator: 48624SAUDI.

Updates

8:04 a.m. PT, May 14, 2025: I asked the same question for Oracle and Broadcom and got surprising answers. LOL. 

8:02 a.m. PT, May 14, 2025: how investors can use ChatGPT -- I simply used "option-space bar" to open. my ChatGPT on my laptop while lying in bed, and asked the question (see below) and ChatGPT gave me this answer:

8:00 a.m. PT, May 14, 2025: I came across this after I posted my notes below.

Original Post

Saudi photo-ops: must see. One of many examples.

US LNG handshake Louisiana LNG project; link here.

NVDA:

• CEO announces chip deal with Saudi-backed Humain
• to power 500MW AI data center,
• scaling to 1.9 GW by 2023

AMD: hits a three-month high; link here;

• AMD joins Saudi firm Humain
• $10-billion push to build AI infrastructure

Humain:

• website; front page pretty stale;
• Nvidia
• AMD
• QCOM;
• AWS;

From ChatGPT, Humain: Saudi Arabia's state-backed AI powerhouse.

Mohammed bin Salman under the Public Investment Fund (PIF). As part of Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 initiative, HUMAIN aims to position the Kingdom as a global leader in AI by developing comprehensive AI infrastructure, including advanced data centers and Arabic-language AI models. The company has announced strategic partnerships with tech giants like NVIDIA, AMD, and AWS to build AI “factories of the future” and enhance the nation’s digital capabilities 

The stories continue to come.

• Trump’s trip to the Middle East
• deals worth a trillion dollars in two days
• Saudi Arabia surges in global influence;
• Trump removes sanctions on Syria
• huge deals with Qatar: Qatar to buy more Boeing jets. Says relationship with US reaches new highs.

US LNG Export Terminals -- Eleven -- Graphic Update -- May 4, 2025

Locator: 48582GP.

Updates

May 14, 2025: Golden Pass update. Link here.

Golden Pass #LNG timing update.

"We [Qatar] own 70% of that. But these projects take time to actually deliver and we expect first LNG to come by the end of this year (2025) and hopefully to inaugurate officially the project in the 1st qt of 26,"  Qatari Energy Minister.
.

This is for Train 1 of 0.68 bcf/d. No ETA for Train 2 and Train 3 start.

Original Post 

 ************************************
Easter 2025

Golden Pass -- Update -- May 4, 2025

Locator: 48581GP.

March 5, 2025 -- link here. This was the extension that the project needed -- back in March, 2025 -- thank you, Mr Trump and Mr Biden. The FERC commissioners. If I have this correct, three of the four were appointed by President Biden in 2024, and the current chairman was appointed by President Trump during the latter's first term in 2021. Link here.

April 28, 2025 -- within Trump's first 100 days! Another win for Trump. 

Link here.

 ****************************
Golden Pass

For "all"posts on "Golden Pass" on the blog, click here.

From June 21, 2022 -- link here.

Number 8?

• if Calcasieu Pass was the seventh US LNG export terminal to be built, is Golden Pass #8?
• Magnolia LNG, Louisiana, would be #9?
• I remember an "anonymous expert" wrote me in 2015 that just because all these projects were "on the board," there was no guarantee all of them would be built, implying that "we" were all getting way ahead of our headlights. 
  

US LNG export capacity: link here.

• record set in 2021, averaging 9.7 billion cubic feet per day = 3.54 trillion cubic feet annually
• forecast:
• an increase of 2.4 Bcf/d in 2022 --> a total of 5.94 trillion cubic feet annually
• an increase of an additional 0.5 Bcf/d in 2023 = 6.44 trillion cubic feet annually

Qatar:

• capacity to reach 126 million tonnes yearly by 2027
• current capacity: 77 million tonnes, 2022

Conversion:

• one million tonnes (LNG) = 48.7 Bcf
• 77 * 48.7 = 3.750 trillion cubic feet annually
• 126 million tonnes = 6.136 trillion cubic feet annually

Usual disclaimers apply:

• there will be typographical and content errors;
• I often make simple arithmetic errors

Golden Pass, XOM:

• 18 million tons of LNG per year = 877 Bcf
• Golden Pass + 2023 US forecast = 0.877 trillion +6.44 trillion = 7.3166 trillion cf/d
• Golden Pass as percent of current US export capacity: 0.877 trillion / 3.54 trillion = 35%

SPGlobal, June 21, 2022 (today):

• capacity: 18 million mt / year
• XOM / Qatar Energy
• project scheduled to open in 2024
• US in talks with XOM to accelerate the project
• one may want to look at this "press release" from just a couple of months ago:

A request by the Golden Pass LNG Terminal developer to bring in more workers to build the Texas natural gas export facility is still pending after a year at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission amid concerns of delay.

FERC staff issued an environmental assessment on March 22 that concluded a Golden Pass plan to boost the peak workforce from 2,900 to 7,700 people per day would not cause significant harm to the environment (CP14-517). But the request still requires approval at a time when FERC is facing pressure over a recent permitting policy overhaul, which commissioners are scheduled to revisit on March 24.

Critics of the policy changes, including gas industry groups and Republican lawmakers, have argued that FERC's new approach will hinder the development of gas infrastructure, even as the White House looks to boost LNG supplies to Europe following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Golden Pass told FERC in its original February 2021 request, which also sought to increase traffic volumes and extend construction hours around the clock, that "construction progress would be severely hampered and successful execution of the project would not be feasible" without the regulator's approval for a larger workforce.

Golden Pass -- Update -- Delayed But Meeting Revised Milestones -- May 4, 2025

Locator: 48580GP.

Within the first 100 days of Trump's watch! FERC approval. Another win for Trump.

Link here.

US LNG Exports -- Simply Staggering -- Random Update -- March 26, 2025

Locator: 48376LNG.

Link here. The graphic from 2016 is simply staggering.

Link here. Think about this. LNG Global counts (8+4+4+3+3+3+1) = 26 LNG vessels in one week..

Tech Investing; LNG Exports -- Plaquemines -- December 30, 2024

Locator: 44574TECH.

For those with traditional IRAs and turning 73 years of age or older in 2025, tomorrow is a most critical day.

On another note, link here: 

In a graphic like this, ticker symbols missing are as important than those on the list.

Intel, Oracle, Dell, QCOM, AVGO, Micron, META, AMZN are not on the list.

**********************************
Disclaimer
Brief Reminder 

• I am inappropriately exuberant about the US economy and the US market.
• I am also inappropriately exuberant about all things Apple. 
• See disclaimer. This is not an investment site. 
• Disclaimer: this is not an investment site. Do not make any investment, financial, job, career, travel, or relationship decisions based on what you read here or think you may have read here. All my posts are done quickly: there will be content and typographical errors. If something appears wrong, it probably is. Feel free to fact check everything.
  
• If anything on any of my posts is important to you, go to the source. If/when I find typographical / content errors, I will correct them. 
• Reminder: I am inappropriately exuberant about the US economy and the US market.
• I am also inappropriately exuberant about all things Apple. 
• And now, Nvidia, also. I am also inappropriately exuberant about all things Nvidia. Nvidia is a metonym for AI and/or the sixth industrial revolution.
  
• Longer version here.   
  

********************
LNG

Link here. 

Definitely Not A Manic Monday -- December 30, 2024

Locator: 44569B.

Some love for Linda Lavin, link here:

LNG update: with Cheniere's 1.4 Bcf/d Corpus Christi III (#8) now on line, what's next:

• QatarEnergy/ExxonMobil’s 2.4-Bcf/d Golden Pass LNG (#9) in Sabine Pass, TX, which will start coming online in the first half of 2025; 
• Sempra's 0.43 Bcf/d Energía Costa Azul (ECA) LNG Phase 1 in west Mexico, to start up in spring, 2026 (this is a delay, had been scheduled to go online summer of 2025);
  
• NextDecade Corp.’s 2.3-Bcf/d Rio Grande LNG (#10) in Brownsville, TX, starting up in 2027; and,
• Sempra and ConocoPhillips’s 2-Bcf/d Port Arthur LNG (#11), coming online in 2027-28.

*********************************
Back to the Bakken

WTI: $71.05.

Tuesday, December 31, 2024: 51 for the month; 154 for the quarter, 682 for the year

• None.

Monday, December 30, 2024: 51 for the month; 154 for the quarter, 682 for the year

• None.

Sunday, December 29, 2024: 51 for the month; 154 for the quarter, 682 for the year

•  None.

Saturday, December 28, 2024: 51 for the month; 154 for the quarter, 682 for the year

• 40731, conf, Rockport Energy, Camden 10-3 3H,
• 39499, conf, Enerplus, Brown Bear 158-99-36-25-5H,
• 37664, conf, BR, Kellogg Ranch 1A TFH, 

RBN Energy: Gray Oak stands out as the only Permian crude pipeline to greenlight an expansion. Archived.

As crude oil production in the Permian continues to grow and pipelines from West Texas to the Gulf Coast edge closer to full utilization, it’s becoming a challenge for producers and shippers alike. Amid this capacity crunch, one pipeline stands out as the only one with a detailed expansion plan: the 850-mile, 900-Mb/d Gray Oak Pipeline from West Texas to Corpus Christi and Sweeny, TX, which started up in late 2019 and became fully operational in early 2020. In today’s RBN blog — the latest in our series on Permian crude oil pipelines — we discuss Gray Oak Pipeline’s dynamic story, including its shifting ownership, strategic connectivity and expansion plans.

In Part 1 and Part 3 of this series, we looked at Longhorn Pipeline and BridgeTex Pipeline, respectively, and what ONEOK has accomplished with these systems since it acquired Magellan. In Part 2, we looked at EPIC’s Crude Pipeline to the Corpus Christi area, which has been operating at full capacity. Today, we’ll cover Gray Oak.

We’ll begin by noting that Gray Oak started up shortly before crude oil demand cratered as the pandemic hit. In response, Permian producers shut in a significant amount of production during the summer of 2020. Additionally, two other new Permian pipelines — also to Corpus Christi — started up during the second half of 2019: Plains All American’s Cactus II (585 Mb/d) and EPIC Crude (400 Mb/d, expanded in 2020 to 600 Mb/d), resulting in a glut of crude pipeline egress.

Despite these challenges, Gray Oak’s outflows quickly ramped up throughout 2020. As shown in Figure 1 below, Gray Oak has operated near its 900-Mb/d capacity (dotted horizontal black line) for some time now. Earlier this year, Gray Oak Pipeline LLC sanctioned a 120-Mb/d expansion following a successful open season. Contracted volume commitments of 80 Mb/d start in April 2025 and one year later another 40 Mb/d is committed to the pipe. Gray Oak could offer early service for new or existing shippers if capacity is desired sooner.

 

Figure 1. Gray Oak Outflows. Source: RBN Crude Oil Permian

The ownership journey of Gray Oak Pipeline is complicated, to say the least. When the project was in its planning stage, Phillips 66 (P66) held a 75% stake and refining company Andeavor owned the remaining 25%. In 2018, Marathon Petroleum acquired Andeavor for $23 billion, inheriting its 25% stake in Gray Oak (box #1 in Figure 2 below), along with a similar stake in the South Texas Gateway (STG) export terminal in Ingleside, across the bay from Corpus. (More on that later ­— spoiler alert: STG’s traded hands a couple of times since then.) We should note that Andeavor and its old Andeavor Logistics master limited partnership (MLP) had its own intricate corporate history with Marathon and its MPLX unit.

Much, much more at the link. 

*********************************
Cheniere

December 30, 2024: Cheniere produces first LNG at Corpus Christi, stage III, link here.

April 16, 2024, flashback:

From RBN Energy, today: new JV's focus is moving Permian natural gas to LNG export terminals. Archived here.

Projects already approved / permitted by the US government ...  expected to increase U.S. LNG export capacity to about 25 Bcf/d from the current 14 Bcf/d.

Of that 11 Bcf/d of incremental capacity, more than 8 Bcf/d will be sited along the Texas coast.

These projects include Cheniere Energy’s 1.4-Bcf/d Stage III at Corpus Christi LNG, which is scheduled to begin starting up late this year; QatarEnergy/ExxonMobil’s 2.4-Bcf/d Golden Pass LNG in Sabine Pass, TX, which will start coming online in the first half of 2025; NextDecade Corp.’s 2.3-Bcf/d Rio Grande LNG in Brownsville, starting up in 2027; and Sempra and ConocoPhillips’s 2-Bcf/d Port Arthur LNG, coming online in 2027-28.

All the way back to 2017: