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A Cheniere Energy Partners LP subsidiary has entered agreements with Total Gas & Power North America Inc. that would provide more capacity to export liquefied natural gas from southwest Louisiana.

Cheniere’s Sabine Pass Liquefaction LLC subsidiary will get additional berthing and storage capacity at the Sabine Pass LNG terminal. The company is building four liquefaction units and the agreement with Total could be used to accommodate the development of a fifth liquefaction unit. It also provides increased flexibility in managing LNG cargo loading and unloading activity.

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Join Chesapeake Energy Corporation and the Minden-South Webster Chamber of Commerce for a CNG/LNG Workshop.
Monday, August 20, 2012 from 11:30am to 1:00pm.
Minden, LA Civic Center at 520 Broadway, Minden, La.
Contact Sarie Joubert at sarie.joubert@chk.com or at 318-674-7206.

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While the latest buzz is centered on the “drop” in gasoline prices, reality indicates that gasoline is still well over $3 a gallon. These prices translate to continual pain at the pump causing many drivers to rethink their daily driving schedule.

With the price of crude oil hovering in the mid $80s, gasoline prices will not be coming down to a reasonable point any time soon. An obvious answer to this national problem of high gasoline prices should be the use of natural gas in America’s vehicles. Daily news articles across the country are constantly stating and or complaining that America has a glut of natural gas from the shale boom that has been taking place over the last four years. How can this glut be used for the country’s good?

Natural gas can be utilized in a vehicle in two ways: compressed, or CNG, or liquefied, or LNG. CNG and LNG are two terms that get tossed around in the media, but with little explanation to the consumer as to what they are, how they can be used, and what cost and savings are involved when using them.

CNG is typically used in lightweight and medium-duty vehicles, such as a Honda Civic or a Chevy, Ford or Dodge truck. Tanks are installed in the trunk of a car or in the bed or a truck from the factory, or can be installed by a licensed professional after market. While the initial costs for a new vehicle equipped with a CNG tank are around $10,000 to $12,000 more than a standard gasoline vehicle, state tax rebates are available in Louisiana and other states that reduce the cost significantly to the consumer.

Any additional costs left after the rebates are recuperated in a minimal time due to the drastic savings at the pump. CNG is selling for around $1.75 per gallon as opposed to the over $3 per gallon one pays in regular gasoline. CNG home-pumping stations are also available, again, with tax rebates accessible to recuperate the expense of the home unit.

A gallon of CNG dispensed into your vehicle from a home unit is less than 50 cents per gallon. The savings are quite obvious once the numbers are compared between CNG and gasoline.

Liquefied natural gas is another avenue for our natural gas supply to be used in the vehicles that drive our nation’s economy. LNG is typically used in large eighteen-wheelers, construction equipment, locomotives and barges that travel our waterways. While LNG requires larger tanks and is more user-friendly for larger scale vehicles, it also is a better fuel for high-mileage travel due to the process to which it is burned in the vehicle.

LNG and CNG are not only cheaper fuels, but they also burn at a higher octane level than gasoline giving a longer lifespan in the engines to which they are used. While price and quality are important factors to consider, the most important element to keep in mind is that natural gas is produced right here in Louisiana.

Don Briggs is president of the Louisiana Oil and Gas Association. His column is published every other week.

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Oil giant Royal Dutch Shell is set to invest more than $300 million to build out a series of liquefied natural gas filling stations at America’s biggest chain of truck stops. According to James Burns, Shell’s manager of LNG transportation fuels, the oil and gas giant will pay the costs of setting up 200 LNG pumps at 100 locations in the Travel Centers of America chain. Burns wouldn’t say where Shell intends to set up these pumps, but insisted that Shell aims to create an tempting value proposition for the owners of trucking fleets who are thinking about investing in trucks that run on the super-chilled natural gas.

“They want to have some comfort that the fuel is available,” says Burns. “We want to be the company that provides that comfort.” In a statement, Travel Centers said the locations will be chosen with the objective of enabling LNG trucks to travel across the entire country.

Burns says Shell will entice truck fleets to buy LNG-powered trucks and to pump their LNG by selling long-term contracts that guarantee the price they pay for the natural gas derived fuel will be at least 30% cheaper than diesel (on an energy-equivalent basis) for the lifetime of their trucks. “They can lock in their fuel savings for however long they keep that truck,” which is often as long as five years.

Shell set up its first network of LNG filling stations in Canada last year after building a small LNG plant in Calgary that makes the equivalent of 300,000 gallons of diesel a day. The Canadian venture installed the pumps at Flying J truck stops. Burns says Shell doesn’t yet have any set plans to build one of these small LNG chillers to supply the U.S. network as it’s secured supply from a third-party LNG producer. “We see a future where infrastructure for LNG is not a concern,” says Burns.

With its deep pockets, Shell shouldn’t have much trouble growing its LNG network bigger than early mover Clean Energy Fuels, which maintains 300 fueling locations in the U.S. and Canada. Publicly traded Clean Energy Fuels lost $31 million in the last quarter, up from a loss of $9 million a year ago. The company has received $150 million in loans from Chesapeake Energy‘s venture capital arm.

I’ve written recently about the oddity of cash-poor Chesapeake investing in such risky ventures as Clean Energy Fuels and “green” gasoline maker Sundrop Fuels. Chesapeake’s high cost of capital can’t justify such moves, nor does it have any experience in operating filling stations. Shell, however, is a very different beast. It’s been operating gas stations for decades, it’s developed its own LNG technology, its market cap is about 20 times Chesapeake’s, and its bond rating is AA versus Chesapeake’s BB-.

Shell is precisely the kind of company that should be investing in fueling trucks with LNG.

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Cheniere Energy (LNG) has a great head start to become the first natural gas exporter in the United States. The company has everything in place with the majority of the permits and financing, now it has a clear trajectory to completing the building of its export facilities. While Cheniere bears have their valid points, the recent pullback of LNG may have created a buying opportunity.

Several articles have come out recently on the topic of the glut of natural gas in the United States and the growth of use worldwide.

This article discusses Exxon Mobile’s (XOM) desire to export natural gas, but the Department of Energy (DOE) won’t approve any more export applications until a study assessing the impact of LNG exports is completed. This is great for Cheniere Energy since it so far has the only approved natural gas export project in the US. Once Cheniere is ready to ship natural gas by 2015 or 2016, it will temporarily have a monopoly on US natural gas exportation. The first DOE study, released in January, found that significant levels of LNG exports could lead to a spike in US wellhead gas prices. The second study won’t come out until the end of summer. These delays have given Cheniere at least a one year lead over competing projects.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) expects total US gas production to rise from 653 billion cubic meters (BCM) in 2011 to 769 bcm in 2017. This excess supply will keep natural gas prices low in the United States which is necessary to keep exporting profitable.

The IEA predicts that natural gas consumption may rise 17% by 2017 from 2011 as demand surges in Asia and the US. Gas demand is projected to rise in Europe over last year as well.

This article, written a couple weeks ago and doesn’t even mention Cheniere Energy, says: “In this strange tale of two markets for the same commodity, North America’s rising natural gas production and lack of export infrastructure could ensure that its overflowing supply continues to sell for an astonishing discount to Asian prices for a few more years.”

This article comments on May 2012 Asian natural gas prices: “Spot Asian LNG prices have this month hit a four-year high of $18 per million British thermal units, up more than 35 per cent over the past year.” Compare this to US natural gas prices that are only around $2.50 per MMBtu.

In the years ahead, the United States will be dealing with austerity measures in paying off its massive debt. By holding growth back with the austerity, natural gas prices in the United States will be kept in check. The United States fiscal challenges make natural gas exportation all the more important.

Cheniere’s commercial contracts are similar to “take-or-pay”. Cheniere receives a tariff whether or not its customers fully use its liquification or regasification facilities. This is one advantage that comes with being the first mover. Even if competitors arrive afterwards that give customers a better deal, Cheniere will have already locked in its customers for the next 20 years. Cheniere already has such contracts in place in its import terminal with Chevron and Total.

Another question is whether Cheniere energy can charge the same fees to liquify the gas, regardless of whether natural gas rates decrease abroad. Perhaps Cheniere can continue charging its same fees despite the changes in natural gas prices worldwide. On the other hand, perhaps natural gas exporters will demand Cheniere reduce its rates if they are taking a hit in profits.

Sabine Pass LNG Terminal

Sabine Pass is located in Cameron Pass, Louisiana. It’s Cheniere Energy Partners (CQP) major project that has LNG storage capacity of approximately 16.9 Bcf (billions of cubic feet) of gas. It has an import terminal for regasification, and is now building an export terminal, Sabine Pass Liquefaction.

Sabine Pass LNG

Sabine Pass LNG is a regasification terminal that takes in approximately $250 million in revenue per year from importing natural gas from Chevron and Total. Total is obligated to make payments of approximately $125 million per year for 20 years starting in 2009. Chevron has a similar deal of approximately $125 per year in obligatory payments.

Sabine Pass LNG is operating at half its capacity. However, due to the oversupply of natural gas in the United States, it’s unlikely the Company will receive any more import revenue. For the same reason, these contracts with Chevron and Total expire in 2029 and most likely won’t get renewed.

Sabine Pass Liquefication

Sabine Pass Liquefication is designed for up to four LNG trains, each with a capacity of approximately 4.5 mtpa (million tons per annum). These trains liquefy the natural gas that comes to the Sabine Pass LNG receiving terminal which is located in Louisiana. The trains then transfer the gas to the receiving export ships. Trains 1&2 will be ready for operation in 2015 or 2016, and trains 3&4 will be ready by 2017 or 2018.

Louisiana is a good location for this terminal. It’s close to five natural gas fields, including Barnett and Haynesville shales – the two largest gas fields in the US which combined produce ~11 Bcf per day. It’s a good location to deliver natural gas to Europe. The only issue I see with the location is it’s quite a bit farther distance from Asia than Australia. Australia is the world’s largest LNG supermarket, and is expected to triple natural gas production over the next decade, as it says in this article. Asia can ship gas from Australia for lower shipping costs. However, the demand still seems to be big enough in Asia that Sabine Pass will export at its full capacity.

Cash Flow Analysis

While Cheniere Energy will have billions in revenues once it’s online, the question is whether it will be able to overcome its massive debt that it will have after its four modular LNG trains are built. A discounted cash flow analysis is needed to determine an appropriate value.

Everything has gone smoothly and it’s all turn key now, so it’s fairly straightforward to apply a discounted cash flow analysis to figure out roughly what the company is worth, although still complicated. Using the Company’s Corporate Presentation released on 5/29/12 is a useful initial guide. On page 3, it estimates EBITDA for Sabine Pass to be $2.8 billion for 2017. While that might be an overly optimistic forecast, if it’s accurate, it will be well more than enough to cover the debt and the stock is undervalued.

Disclosure: I am long LNG.

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Consideration of licenses to export natural gas from the U.S. will have to wait until the completion this summer of a study that has been delayed for several months, according to the Energy Department.

Since Cheniere Energy Inc. (LNG) received an Energy Department permit to ship gas from Louisiana last year, the agency suspended other applications and commissioned a study of the impact of exports on domestic energy consumption, production, and prices.

The first part of the study was published in January, while the second, initially scheduled to be ready in the first quarter of this year, has not been completed.

“The second part of the study, which will assess the broader economic effects of increased natural gas exports, is ongoing,” William Gibbons, an Energy Department spokesman, said in an e-mail yesterday. “We expect to be able to release the comprehensive study results late this summer.”

The assessments were initiated after complaints from several U.S. lawmakers, including Senator Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, who said sales overseas might increase prices at home.

U.S. energy companies are concerned about the costs related to the delays, said Bill Cooper, president of the Washington- based Center for Liquefied Natural Gas, which advocates for natural-gas shipments. Even after the study is published, it’s not clear how quickly permits can be issued, he said.

“We don’t have any time frame on that at all,” Cooper, said in an interview. “It’s just totally up in the air.”

Investors Waiting

Investors including Sempra Energy (SRE) in partnership with Mitsubishi Corp. (8058) and Mitsui & Co. Ltd. (8031), Freeport LNG with Macquarie Group Ltd. (MQG), and Dominion Resources Inc. (D), have applied for approvals from the Energy Department.

The permits are required to sell to countries that aren’t free-trade partners with the U.S., a group that includes Japan and Spain.

Trade in gas that has been liquefied for transport surged 50 percent last year as Japan sought to replace lost nuclear power output and demand from the rest of Asia increased, according to the Paris-based International Group of Liquefied Natural Gas Importers. The nation imported 79.1 million tons of LNG last year, 12 percent more than a year earlier, according to the importers group.

Japan’s 54 reactors were shut pending safety checks after last year’s meltdown at Tokyo Electric Power Co. (9501)’s Fukushima Dai-Ichi plant in the northeast of the country. A government panel said on May 12 that the world’s third-largest economy may experience power shortages and blackouts this summer.

Japanese paid $16 per thousand cubic feet, 32 percent more than a year ago, to attract supplies in the first quarter, according to Sanford C. Bernstein & Co.

Those prices are attractive to producers in the U.S. where natural gas on the New York Mercantile Exchange was $2.503 per million British thermal units in the first quarter, an equivalent of $2.57 per thousand cubic feet. U.S. natural gas prices declined 79 percent over the past four years, following the increase in production from shale formations.

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Malaysia’s bid to secure natural gas supplies in Canada is turning Encana Corp. (ECA) and Talisman Energy Inc. into two of the industry’s cheapest targets.

Petroliam Nasional Bhd., the state-owned oil company known as Petronas (PET), is studying a Canadian acquisition of more than $5 billion, Chief Executive Officer Shamsul Azhar Abbas said in an interview last week with Bloomberg News. Encana is searching for partners to fund drilling and is worth just $1.50 per million cubic feet of gas reserves, the least among producers in Canada, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Encana and Talisman, which is spending less on extracting natural gas after prices fell to a 10-year low, are also the two cheapest versus output.

Petronas joins Asian companies such as PetroChina Co., Mitsubishi Corp. and Cnooc Ltd. in seeking production in North America, where a boom in shale-gas exploration lowered natural- gas prices to less than 15 percent of benchmark prices in Asia. Encana, Canada’s biggest natural-gas producer, and Talisman (TLM), which has assets in British Columbia and Pennsylvania, as well as gas fields off the coasts of Malaysia and Indonesia, may make sense for Petronas, First Asset Investment Management Inc. said.

For Asian buyers such as Petronas, “it’s really about access to resources,” John Stephenson, who helps manage $2.7 billion at First Asset Investment in Toronto, said in a telephone interview. “They’re locking in long-term reserves to feed a growing economy, so it’s both a political and strategic imperative. Even adding in the cost of shipping, you’d be making a ton of money” importing from North America, he said.

‘Willing to Talk’

Carol Howes, a spokeswoman for Encana, and Talisman’s David Mann, declined to comment on whether their companies have been approached by Petronas about an acquisition. Both energy producers are based in Calgary.

First Asset’s Stephenson said in addition to Encana and Talisman, Progress Energy Resources Corp. (PRQ) could also be a likely target if Petronas decided to pursue a smaller deal. In August, Petronas bought a 50 percent stake in three natural-gas fields in British Columbia from Calgary-based Progress Energy. Its stock jumped 7.9 percent yesterday.

“Our talks with Petronas have been strictly related to our joint-venture activities,” Progress Energy CEO Michael R. Culbert said in a telephone interview.

When asked whether the company would consider talks with Petronas about a takeover, he said “if it maximizes shareholder value then we’re always willing to talk to anybody.”

Azman Ibrahim, a spokesman for Petronas, didn’t immediately respond to telephone or e-mail messages seeking comment.

Going Big

A purchase of more than $5 billion would be twice as large as any deal that Petronas has ever completed. In 2008, Petronas agreed to pay $2 billion for a 40 percent stake in Santos Ltd.’s Gladstone LNG project in Australia.

“This is going to be big,” 59-year-old Shamsul, said in a March 30 interview on the 81st floor of the company’s twin towers headquarters in Kuala Lumpur. “There are quite a few candidates out there, who are willing to talk.”

He said a deal may be announced within three months.

Petronas (PET) has embarked on a worldwide review of its energy assets since Shamsul took over as CEO in February 2010 and plans to spend a record 300 billion ringgit ($98 billion) over five years to help replenish Malaysia’s diminishing reserves and secure supplies that can be guaranteed over time.

The company’s total oil and gas production globally has declined for two consecutive years, decreasing to 2.14 million barrels of oil equivalent per day in its fiscal year ended March 2011, according to its annual report.

Natural Gas Appeal

Petronas is now eyeing energy producers in Canada as the development of so-called hydraulic fracturing to extract gas trapped in shale rock has caused the price of natural gas in North America to plummet, even as Asian import prices surge.

Gas fell to $2.13 per million British thermal units last week on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the lowest since February 2002. The price of liquefied natural-gas imports from the U.S. to Japan was $16.76 per million British thermal units as of Jan. 31, more than doubling in the past five years, according to the most recent data.

Encana’s assets could appeal to Petronas because the company is cheap relative to reserves and also has a significant amount of land, according to Robert Lutts, who oversees about $500 million as president of Cabot Money Management Inc. in Salem, Massachusetts.

The company, which has a market value of $14.5 billion, is worth about $1.50 for every million cubic feet of natural gas in its reserves, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Relative Value

That’s about half as much as the average for independent oil and gas producer in North America and the cheapest of any one in Canada with at least $1 billion in market value.

Encana also had almost 12 million net acres of land across North America, more than twice the size of New Jersey, Executive Vice President Eric Marsh said at a Feb. 7 conference.

“The number-one reason it would be attractive is because they have significant natural-gas assets,” Lutts said in a telephone interview. “And of course, natural-gas pricing where Petronas is from has substantially higher costs, so it could be a potential fit to their needs. Given the values that it’s trading at, it is a candidate to be acquired.”

Encana said yesterday that it is looking to sell minority stakes to help fund drilling on 1.58 million acres of oil and gas-liquids fields in the U.S. and Canada.

The company, which fell 41 percent in the past year, is selling assets, scaling back natural-gas production and entering into partnerships to help cover costs as a drop in gas prices helped cause earnings to fall short of estimates in five of the past seven quarters, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

‘800-Pound Gorilla’

“They’re the 800-pound gorilla in Canada,” Sam La Bell, energy and special situations analyst at Veritas Investment Research Corp. in Toronto, said in a telephone interview. “There are all sorts of other gas players who are in trouble, but they don’t have the scale to be a target.”

Talisman’s assets could be attractive for Petronas because of its shale properties in British Columbia, where producers plan to build facilities to ship liquefied natural gas to Asia, said Philip Skolnick, an analyst with Canaccord Genuity Inc.

The company holds 144,000 net acres in the Montney Shale natural-gas field in northeastern British Columbia, as well as 217,000 net acres in Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale formation, according to its website.

Most international companies “would want to get involved with or buy a company where there was a good prospect for moving gas to the coast,” said Michael Tims, chairman of Peters & Co., a Calgary-based investment bank.

Opportunity Cost

“Regionally, that means they would look for players in northeast British Columbia” he said, without identifying any potential candidates.

Talisman, which also has fields in Malaysia that accounted for 30 percent of its production in southeast Asia and Indonesian offshore interests, is valued at about $6 for every cubic foot of natural gas it produced per day, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That’s cheaper than any Canadian oil and gas company, apart from Encana, the data show.

Any buyer would now have to convince potential targets such as Encana to sell before a projected rebound in natural-gas prices from a 10-year low. Gas futures may average $3.59 in 2013, analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg show. That’s almost 70 percent higher than yesterday’s price.

PetroChina (857), Asia’s largest energy producer, last year walked away from an agreement to pay C$5.4 billion ($5.4 billion) for a 50 percent stake in Encana’s Cutbank Ridge joint venture and fund development of about 635,000 net acres in British Columbia and Alberta after failing to agree on price.

National Interest

The deal would have been the Beijing-based company’s biggest overseas acquisition. Encana later agreed to sell a 40 percent stake in Cutbank Ridge to Mitsubishi for C$1.45 billion upfront and a commitment on funding development over five years.

Any acquisition also may need the approval of Canadian regulators. The government in November 2010 rejected Melbourne- based BHP Billiton Ltd.’s $40 billion hostile takeover of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan-based Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan after the province said the sale would cut jobs and tax revenue.

For Asian governments in need of energy assets to fuel their economic growth, state-owned companies such as Petronas will play an increasingly influential role in dealmaking, according to Christian O’Neill, an oil and gas analyst for Bloomberg Industries in Skillman, New Jersey.

Petronas accounted for about a third of the Malaysian government’s estimated 183 billion-ringgit revenue in 2011, according to the finance ministry.

“The thirst for natural gas over the long term is going to be significant” for Asian economies, O’Neill said. “Everyone in Asia is concerned that gas is going to be tight. There’s the belief that we’ve got a long-term supply of natural gas relative to our demand. What Petronas will be buying is exposure to the North American natural gas market.”

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GE GE +0.27% and Chesapeake Energy Corporation CHK +0.17% today announced a collaboration to develop infrastructure solutions that will help accelerate the adoption of natural gas as a transportation fuel. This groundbreaking technology and services project marks a significant milestone toward increasing energy independence in the United States through the increased use of natural gas–an abundant, reliable and cleaner-burning source of energy for both consumers and commercial users.

To formalize the agreement, GE and Chesapeake have signed a memorandum of understanding on a product and services development partnership, representing a multi-year collaboration between the two companies to develop and bring to market compressed natural gas (CNG) and liquefied natural gas (LNG) transportation and natural gas home-fueling solutions. By improving access to CNG, which is most commonly used in light- to medium-duty vehicles such as pickups, vans, SUVs, taxicabs, transit buses, refuse and delivery trucks as well as consumer vehicles, along with LNG, which is commonly used for heavy-duty industrial purposes, dependence on foreign energy sources can be reduced while simultaneously lowering fueling costs and vehicle emissions.

The collaboration is designed to leverage GE’s global Oil & Gas technology portfolio with Chesapeake’s expertise in developing innovative fueling solutions to lower the ownership and operational costs of natural gas vehicle (NGV) fueling stations. With the development of shale resources dramatically increasing the amount of low-cost natural gas in North America, the GE-Chesapeake collaboration can help incentivize operators to put more NGVs on the nation’s highways.

As part of today’s announced collaboration, beginning in the fall of 2012 GE will provide more than 250 modular and standardized CNG compression stations for NGV infrastructure. These units, also known as “CNG In A Box(TM),” have gone through GE’s rigorous ecomagination-qualification process and will provide the core infrastructure to enable expanded access to CNG at fueling stations and other designated installations.

A vehicle using CNG can reduce annual fuel costs up to 40 percent, assuming 25,700 miles per year driven, gasoline priced at $3.50/gallon and CNG at $2.09/gasoline gallon equivalent. This represents savings totaling as much as $1,500 per fleet vehicle per year. In total, for each fleet vehicle using fuel provided by CNG In A Box instead of gasoline, a fleet operator can reduce CO2e emissions from fuel combustion by about 24 percent, or 2.2 metric tons per vehicle annually, assuming an average fleet vehicle travels approximately 25,700 miles per year.

“Both GE and Chesapeake are known for taking on tough energy challenges and putting the best minds and technologies to work to develop solutions,” said Aubrey K. McClendon, Chesapeake’s Chief Executive Officer. “The partnership announced today between GE and Chesapeake’s affiliate, Peake Fuel Solutions, combines Chesapeake’s natural gas expertise with GE’s extensive global manufacturing capabilities and will bring transformative products to industries and individual consumers across the U.S. These products and services will allow customers to enjoy the clear advantages of clean, affordable and abundant American natural gas at about half the cost of gasoline.”

Said GE Energy President & CEO John Krenicki, “GE is fundamentally committed to natural gas–our technologies help extract it, move it and turn it into power, whether it’s highly efficient gas turbines delivering electricity at the utility scale or, in the near future, a vehicle at a refueling station. What makes this project particularly exciting is that it paves the way to taking the immense reserves of natural gas being discovered in the U.S. and using them right here in the U.S. That paves the way for faster economic growth, energy security, more jobs and reduced environmental impact.”

This CNG technology will be brought to market by Peake Fuel Solutions–a Chesapeake affiliate–which has extensive experience with natural gas vehicles, vehicle emission controls and natural gas market dynamics. Chesapeake also brings considerable in-house expertise in CNG market development to the GE collaboration, including retail station relationships, fleet outreach and education programs and policy engagement.

CNG In A Box takes natural gas from a pipeline and compresses it on-site at an industrial location or at a traditional automotive refilling station to then turn it into CNG. A CNG vehicle, such as a taxi, bus or small truck, can then refill its tank using a traditional fuel dispenser, much like those used for diesel or gasoline refueling.

Key features include:

– The gas compression, storage, cooling, drying and controls are easy to ship and maintain due to its compact “In Box” design.

– The units come in two configurations: an 8 foot x 20 foot container or 8 foot x 40 foot container, depending on the site’s need.

– Its modular and intuitive design makes it “Plug & Play” on-site.

– The offering includes GE Wayne branded dispensers with credit card capability and provision for “Point Of Sale” interface.

– The fuel dispenses at a rate of about 7 gasoline gallon equivalent per minute.

Other elements of the new collaboration include:

– Aftermarket services for natural gas fueling infrastructure.

– GE’s LNG fueling plants, which adapt GE’s proven large-scale LNG liquefaction technologies to smaller-scale operations. Using LNG as a substitute for diesel or fuel oil can reduce combustion emissions up to 25 percent.

– Development of home refueling technologies.

– Co-marketing of products and services resulting from the partnership.

original article