Chart nets $10.4 mln LNG equipment deal

Chart Industries has booked a $10.4 million order for the liquefier, compressor, and tank equipment content on a utility-scale liquefied natural gas (LNG) project in the Northeast United States. 

The small-scale LNG and utility-scale LNG markets serve a different customer set than mid-scale and base-load export terminal operators.  These smaller liquefaction plants typically have a production capacity of less than 500,000 tons per year, and serve specific uses such as marine bunkering, fuel for over the road transport, and power generation in targeted locations.

Utility clients are moving toward LNG as an option for a peak capacity market demand solution in gas pipeline constrained areas such as the East Coast of the United States, Chart said adding that this is a natural solution for geographies that have distribution system growth while unable to add incremental capacity.

The company further added that in the fourth quarter of 2018, it booked an $8.4 million order for the first LNG project for NiCHe, a Dominion Energy/REV LNG joint venture.  This project, Towanda, is a 50,000 gallon per day nitrogen cycle liquefier in Northeastern Pennsylvania.

Chart is providing the liquefier and the compressor for the plant which is expected to be actively producing by the end of 2019.

Chart said it is working with ODIN as the EPC for both of these projects. ODIN, formerly Northstar Industries, is a utility-scale LNG and natural gas infrastructure EPC provider.

The activity in the utility-scale LNG space is not limited to the Northeast United States. Duke Energy, the parent of Piedmont Natural Gas, continues to progress its LNG strategy.  In May 2019, Piedmont Natural Gas started construction of their 1 billion-cubic-foot storage facility, with an estimated completion date in the summer of 2021.

Earlier in 2019, Chart booked an order from Nikkiso Cosmodyne for the supply of brazed aluminum heat exchangers for a major utility company in the United States.

Outside of the United States, Chart is seeing significant opportunities for island-based LNG to drive power demand, especially in the Mediterranean Sea and Southeast Asia.

Small-scale and utility-scale LNG is projected to grow to between 75 million and 95 million tons by 2030.

In the next three years, Chart estimates total market opportunity to be over $650 million for Chart equipment and process on these applications.