Andeavor Confirms Purchase of Kenai LNG Terminal
Andeavor, a US refining and pipeline company headquartered in San Antonio, Texas, confirmed February 5 it has acquired the 200mn ft3/day Kenai LNG export terminal in southern Alaska from ConocoPhillips.
Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. An Andeavor spokesman would only say, in an email to NGW, that the purchase “further strengthens our integrated value chain by optimizing our operations in Kenai and providing low-cost fuel for our refinery….” Andeavor, previously Tesoro Corp., operates some 12mn b/d of refining capacity in the US, including a 72,000 b/d refinery at Kenai.
The Andeavor spokesman also said the company is reviewing its export and marketing plans for the facility.
The Kenai LNG export terminal began operations in 1969 and for more than 40 years was the only LNG exporting terminal in the US, with most of its deliveries going to Japan. ConocoPhillips ceased export operations in 2011, but resumed them again in 2012 under an existing export licence from the US Department of Energy (DOE) that expired in 2013.
In 2014, the DOE granted the facility a new licence covering the export of 40bn ft3 over a two-year period between 2014 and 2016. The last exports from the facility, according to DOE records, took place in 2015, when ConocoPhillips delivered six cargoes comprising some 16.5bn ft3, to customers in Taiwan and Japan. In 2014, it delivered five cargoes to Japan totalling 13.3bn ft3.