CBP Lets Foreign-Flag Ships Move U.S. Natural Gas to Puerto Rico

U.S. gas is a foreign cargo if processed and liquefied in Mexico first, CBP rules

The Fast LNG 1 liquefaction plant off Altamira, Mexico, will be fed by U.S.-origin gas (New Fortress Energy file image)

PUBLISHED JAN 30, 2024 6:52 PM BY THE MARITIME EXECUTIVE

 

 

U.S. Customs and Border Protection will allow foreign-flag LNG carriers to move U.S. gas to U.S. markets, without violating the Jones Act, according to New York-based New Fortress Energy. The company has secured a CBP ruling for the operations of its Mexico-based LNG plant, which will process, liquefy and ship U.S.-origin natural gas to Puerto Rico. 

“We are extremely pleased to receive this ruling for our FLNG facility since it not only supports one of the company’s largest projects but also supports the people of Puerto Rico,” said Wes Edens, Chairman and CEO of New Fortress Energy.

Fast LNG 1 represents a new model of liquefaction terminal development. The plant was constructed aboard three jackup rigs at a shipyard, then moved out to a permanent location off Mexico and installed. It received its first gas from Texas via a pipeline late last year. 

The natural gas feedstock for Fast LNG 1 comes from the largest U.S.-to-Mexico export pipeline, Valley Crossing / Sur de Texas. The line was built in the late 2010s to connect "reliable, plentiful Texas supply with growing Mexican demand," according to midstream company Enbridge. The gas enters the pipeline in the Agua Dulce area, a collection and distribution hub near Corpus Christi. 

New Fortress' plant will receive this U.S. natural gas, treat and liquefy it, then load the product onto foreign-flag LNG carriers. The LNG carriers will deliver the product to Puerto Rico, the company says, where it will be regasified and used.

Because the U.S. mainland and Puerto Rico are both U.S. points, U.S.-based LNG plants would have to use U.S. vessels qualified for coastwise transport to carry out this trade. Jones Act-qualified full size LNG carriers do not currently exist, so U.S.-based LNG plants sell all full size cargoes to foreign customers.

However, the Jones Act does not apply to LNG plants located in Mexico, according to CBP, even if the gas is the same. The agency has ruled that Fast LNG 1 can freely use foreign-flag, foreign-crewed LNG carriers to transport U.S. pipeline gas from Texas to Puerto Rico via liquefaction south of the border. The agency determined that when the gas is treated and liquefied at the plant in Mexico, it will become "different from the pipeline feed gas" that departed Texas; since it has been modified, it is no longer a U.S. cargo, by the agency's reasoning. 

According to CBP, Fast LNG 1's facility will remove and burn the heavier fractions found in pipeline gas - ethane, propane and butane - before compressing and chilling the remaining 95 percent of the feedstock, methane. When the LNG is regasified in Puerto Rico for use, it will still meet the market definition of "natural gas" - but it will lack the condensate fractions removed in Mexico, and will have a slightly lower heat value. Because of this modification, it will be a "new and different product from the [U.S.] pipeline feed gas," not a U.S. cargo, and legally permissible to move on a foreign-flag ship, CBP determined. 

New Fortress did not respond to multiple requests for comment. 

U.S. maritime sources suggested that the industry as a whole is still digesting the ruling, but some expressed unease. "The Jones Act clearly precludes foreign vessels from engaging in 'any part of the transportation' between two U.S. points," one source commented.  

New Fortress has deep ties to Puerto Rico's LNG supply chain, including a floating LNG terminal project that has been delayed by a permitting dispute with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). The company also holds a contract with Puerto Rico's power authority to operate a fleet of 12 gas-fired powerplants fed by LNG; the power authority's union has sued to block the contract from taking effect.

Galveston LNG Bunker Port Sets Site for Proposed LNG Bunkering Facility

Provide Clean Fuel to the Maritime Industry in the Greater Galveston Bay Area  

LNG IS NOT CLEAN NOR GREEN

Rendering of the planned LNG facility

PUBLISHED JAN 31, 2024 10:04 PM BY SEAPATH

Galveston LNG Bunker Port (GLBP) has announced its lease-agreement with the City of Texas City for 140 acres of land on Shoal Point in Galveston County, Texas, adjacent to the Texas City Ship Channel and in close proximity to the maritime centers of Texas City, Galveston, and Houston.

Galveston LNG Bunker Port is a Joint Venture between Seapath and Pilot LNG to develop, construct, and operate the US Gulf Coast’s first dedicated facility supporting the fueling of LNG-powered vessels and will be located on 140 acres of prime deep-water marine industrial real estate in Galveston County, Texas.   GLBP was announced in September of 2023 as a joint-venture between Seapath Group (Seapath), a maritime subsidiary of Libra Group, and Pilot LNG, LLC (Pilot), a Houston-based clean energy solutions company. Pilot and Seapath anticipate announcing the Final Investment Decision (FID) details of the GLBP project on Shoal Point by the second half of 2024, with operations commencing in late 2026.

Texas City Mayor, Dedrick Johnson says: “Texas City is excited to be partnering with GLBP to develop Shoal Point. Shoal Point and Texas City are an integral part of the maritime economy both in the State of Texas and throughout the U.S. We are very happy to have GLBP in our City and look forward to the jobs and economic opportunities that the project will bring to Texas City.”

Jonathan Cook, CEO of Pilot LNG stated: “GLBP is fortunate to have a collaborative partner in Texas City, and we believe this is the best possible site in the entire Galveston Bay region for our clean energy facility. Its strategic location and proximity to the key ports of Texas City, Galveston, and Houston is critical in ensuring the successful delivery of this LNG marine fuels project. We look forward to more announcements in the coming weeks and months as additional milestones are achieved towards the successful delivery of the project.”

Since the project was announced in September, GLBP has assembled a top team of advisors and continues its ongoing front-end engineering and design development for the project. The project as designed is for a two train and two tank facility producing 600,000 gallons per day. The first phase of the GLBP project is expected to produce 300,000 gallons per day of LNG for sale into the marine bunker fuel market in the Galveston Bay, and Western Gulf of Mexico region. GLBP estimates it will file applications with the necessary federal and state agencies to permit, construct, and operate the small-scale LNG terminal for marine fuel in early 2024. 

This article is sponsored by Seapath. For more information on the LNG project visit www.galvestonlng.com

G7 Plans To Back New Natural Gas Investments

By Charles Kennedy - Apr 06, 2023

With global energy markets upended, the G7 group of the world’s most industrialized nations is considering endorsing new upstream investment in natural gas despite climate concerns, a draft document seen by Reuters showed on Thursday.   

The energy and climate change ministers of the G7 members—Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK, and the U.S.—are holding a summit in Japan next week, at which they are expected to discuss ways to reduce emissions in the face of more pressing energy security issues.

According to the draft document, the ministers will say that new upstream investment in natural gas supply will be needed to address energy security after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

“In this context, in this particular contingency, we recognize the need for necessary upstream investments in LNG (liquefied natural gas) and natural gas in line with our climate objectives and commitments,” reads the draft statement seen by Reuters.

The draft is not the final draft of the communique to be adopted and could still change until the summit, which Japan will host on April 15 and 16.

Major European economies, including the biggest, Germany, have seen first-hand the need for natural gas supply that’s not coming via pipelines from Russia. The U.S. has been sending record volumes of LNG to Europe over the past year as prices surged following the Russian invasion of Ukraine and as the U.S. pledged to help its European allies with gas deliveries.

Despite protests from environmentalists, many governments and policymakers have recognized the need to ensure a reliable and stable gas supply.

The World Bank could now be open to funding some gas projects, although it had pledged that it would stop funding upstream oil and gas projects after 2019.

The World Bank could be open to funding gas projects in Mozambique to ensure greater energy access if the costs are the cheapest among energy sources, Victoria Kwakwa, World Bank Vice President for Eastern and Southern Africa, told Bloomberg in an interview last month.

Back in 2017, the World Bank Group said it would no longer finance upstream oil and gas after 2019. But the group noted that “In exceptional circumstances, consideration will be given to financing upstream gas in the poorest countries where there is a clear benefit in terms of energy access for the poor and the project fits within the countries’ Paris Agreement commitments.”

How The U.S. Became A Natural Gas Giant

By Alex Kimani - Apr 04, 2023

• From a position of relative obscurity less than a decade ago, U.S. natural gas and liquefied natural gas (LNG) export capacity has expanded rapidly since the Lower 48 states first began exporting LNG in 2016.
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• The U.S. now exports LNG to 40 countries across the globe.
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• The United States has the world’s largest backlog of near-shovel-ready liquefied natural gas projects, and takeaway capacity remains a bottleneck.

How The U.S. Became A Natural Gas Giant

From a position of relative obscurity less than a decade ago, U.S. natural gas and liquefied natural gas (LNG) export capacity has expanded rapidly since the Lower 48 states first began exporting LNG in 2016. Last year, the United States achieved an important milestone after becoming the world's biggest LNG exporter, surpassing Qatar and Australia as Europe scrambled to replace Russian gas. This was made possible after LNG liquefaction units, called trains, at Sabine Pass and Calcasieu Pass in Louisiana came online last year.

Last year, U.S. exports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) averaged 10.6 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) , increasing by 9% (0.8 Bcf/d) compared with 2021. LNG exports to Europe increased a torrid 141% clip, or 4.0 Bcf/d, compared with 2021.  Europe has become the primary destination for U.S. LNG exports, accounting for 64% (6.8 Bcf/d) of total exports in 2022. Just four countries— the U.K., France, Spain, and the Netherlands–accounted for nearly three quarters of LNG exports to Europe. Europe was able to avoid a gas shortage crisis this winter thanks to high LNG imports.

That’s a really strange turn of events considering that a decade and a half ago, before the shale revolution was a thing, the United States was widely expected to become a key LNG importer, likely dependent on the Middle East, Russia and North African. But then, the shale revolution happened, leading to a massive increase in gas output through the use of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing to extract hydrocarbons trapped in shale rocks. After a decade of dramatic growth and rapid expansion of LNG export facilities, the country began exporting LNG from the Lower 48 states in February 2016.

The U.S. now exports LNG to 40 countries across the globe.

To secure supplies, customers have been signing long-term deals with U.S. producers at a record clip. Last year, the volume of long-term LNG contracts signed to end-user markets climbed to a 5-year high, and the momentum remains strong.

Last year, LNG giant Cheniere Energy Inc.(NYSE: LNG) revealed that it’s had the most active year for contracting since 2011.

Louisiana-based LNG company Sempra Infrastructure, a majority owned subsidiary of Sempra Energy (NYSE: SRE) (BMV: SRE), inked six long-term contracts in the space of just five months. The deal calls for Sempra Infrastructure’s Cameron LNG in Hackberry to supply 2 million metric tons of LNG annually to the Polish Oil & Gas Co. Sempra Infrastructure struck another 2 million-ton deal with Polish for its upcoming Port Arthur LNG facility in Port Arthur, Texas.

Most new contracts are from U.S. supply as operators move projects forward. All these contracts are linked to North American prices. Meanwhile, Chinese buyers continue to dominate the market, signing more than 8 million tpy of new LNG sale and purchase agreements this year. 

“The Russian invasion of Ukraine has had a dramatic impact on long-term LNG contracts. Many traditional LNG buyers will neither procure spot gas or LNG nor renew or sign additional LNG contracts with Russian sellers. Spot prices have also been high and volatile, pushing many buyers towards long-term contracts. Additionally, some buyers are returning to long-term contracting on behalf of governments to protect national energy security,” Wood Mackenzie principal analyst Daniel Toleman has said.

Pipeline Bottleneck

Unfortunately, whereas the United States has the world’s largest backlog of near-shovel-ready liquefied natural gas projects, takeaway constraints including limited pipeline capacity remain the biggest hurdle to expanding the sector.

In the Appalachian Basin, the country’s largest gas-producing region churning out more than 35 Bcf/d, environmental groups have repeatedly stopped or slowed down pipeline projects and limited further growth in the Northeast. This leaves the Permian Basin and Haynesville Shale to shoulder much of the growth forecast for LNG exports. Indeed, EQT Corp.(NYSE: EQT) CEO Toby Rice recently acknowledged that Appalachian pipeline capacity has “hit a wall.”

Related: Venezuelan Oil Exports Jumped In March

Analysts at East Daley Capital Inc. have projected that U.S. LNG exports will grow to 26.3 Bcf/d by 2030 from their current level of nearly 13 Bcf/d. For this to happen, the analysts say another 2-4 Bcf/d of takeaway capacity would need to come online between 2026 and 2030 in the Haynesville.

“This assumes significant gas growth from the Permian and other associated gas plays. Any view where oil prices take enough of a dip to slow that activity in the Permian and you’re going to have even more of a call for gas from gassier basins,” the analysts have said.

U.S. Pipeline Companies To Watch

According to FERC, four U.S. LNG projects are currently under construction, another 12 have been approved by federal regulators and four more have been proposed totaling 40 Bcf/d of potential LNG exports.

The pivotal Permian Basin is preparing to unleash a torrent of gas and gas projects to meet exploding LNG and nat. gas demand. Energy Transfer LP (NYSE: ET) is looking to build the next large pipeline to transport natural gas production from the Permian Basin. The company is also working on the Louisiana-based Gulf Run pipeline, which will transport gas from the Haynesville Shale in Texas, Arkansas, and Louisiana to the Gulf Coast.

Energy Transfer is expected to report Q2 earnings on 3rd August 2022. The consensus EPS forecast for the quarter, based on 5 analysts as per Zacks Investment Research, is $0.28 compared to $0.20 for last year’s corresponding period.

Back in May, a consortium of oil and natural gas firms namely WhiteWater Midstream LLC, EnLink Midstream (NYSE:ENLC), Devon Energy Corp. (NYSE: DVN) and MPLX LP (NYSE: MPlX) announced that they had reached a final investment decision (FID) to move forward with the construction of the Matterhorn Express Pipeline after having secured sufficient firm transportation agreements with shippers.

The Matterhorn Express Pipeline will transport up to 2.5 billion cubic feet per day of natural gas through approximately 490 miles of 42-inch pipeline from Waha, Texas, to the Katy area near Houston, Texas. Supply will be sourced from multiple upstream connections in the Permian Basin. Matterhorn is expected to be in service in the second half of 2024, pending regulatory approvals. 

WhiteWater CEO Christer Rundlof touted the company’s partnership with the three pipeline companies in developing “incremental gas transportation out of the Permian Basin as production continues to grow in West Texas.” Rundlof says Matterhorn will provide “premium market access with superior flexibility for Permian Basin shippers while playing a critical role in minimizing flared volumes.”

Matterhorn joins a growing list of pipeline projects designed to capture growing volumes of Permian supply to send to downstream markets. 

WhiteWater revealed plans to expand the Whistler Pipeline’s capacity by about 0.5 Bcf/d, to 2.5 Bcf/d, with three new compressor stations.

MPLX has several other expansion projects under construction. The company says it expects to finish construction on two processing plants this year, and recently reached a final investment decision to expand its Whistler Pipeline. 

Also in May, Kinder Morgan Inc. (NYSE: KMI) subsidiary launched an open season to gauge shipper interest in expanding the 2.0 Bcf/d Gulf Coast Express Pipeline (GCX).

Meanwhile, KMI has already completed a binding open season for the Permian Highway Pipeline (PHP), with a foundation shipper already in place for half of the planned 650 MMcf/d expansion capacity.

In an effort to increase LNG exports to the European Union to stave off an energy crisis amid Russia’s war on Ukraine, the U.S. Department of Energy has authorized additional LNG exports from the planned Golden Pass LNG Terminal in Texas and the Magnolia LNG Terminal in Louisiana. 

Jointly owned by Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM) and Qatar Petroleum, the $10B Golden Pass LNG export project is expected to become operational in 2024, while Magnolia LNG, owned by Glenfarne Group, will come online by 2026. The two terminals are expected to produce more than 3B cf/day of natural gas, although Magnolia is yet to sign contracts with customers. 

Previously, American LNG developers were unwilling to construct self-financed liquefaction facilities that are not secured by long-term contracts from European countries. However, the Ukraine war has exposed Europe’s soft underbelly and the harsh reality is forcing a rethink of their energy systems. To wit, Germany, Finland, Latvia, and Estonia recently expressed the desire to move forward with new LNG import terminals.

Meanwhile, the DoE has approved expanded permits for Cheniere Energy's (NYSE: LNG) Sabine Pass terminal in Louisiana and its Corpus Christi plant in Texas. The approvals allow the terminals to export the equivalent of 0.72 billion cubic feet of LNG per day to any country with which the United States does not have a free trade agreement, including all of Europe. Cheniere says the facilities already are making more gas than is covered by previous export permits.

By Alex Kimani for Oilprice.com

Maersk's Methanol Efforts Proceed with Bunkering in Singapore and US Plant

Maersk's new containership completed Singapore's first STS methanol bunkering operation (MPA)

PUBLISHED JUL 27, 2023 9:23 PM BY THE MARITIME EXECUTIVE

 

Maersk continues to forge ahead with efforts to develop methanol as an alternative fuel to support the maritime industry’s transition. The shipping company is supporting the development of a large green methanol production facility in Central Louisiana while in Singapore they completed the port’s first-ever ship-to-ship methanol bunkering operation. With its maiden voyage underway, the first containership fueled by methanol is now a little over a month away from reaching Maersk’s headquarters in Copenhagen.

Singapore’s Maritime and Port Authority (MPA) is highlighting the unique bunkering operation and the preparation it undertook. Before the operation, extensive safety preparations were made, including tabletop exercises, workshops, and a ground deployment exercise involving various stakeholders and government agencies. The MPA highlights that it conducted a thorough risk and environmental impact assessment, reviewed global methanol-related incidents, and incorporated the use of drones, weather and tide forecasting, plume modeling, and monitoring to support the operation.

The 32,300 dwt containership built in South Korea which will be officially named Laura Maersk when it reaches Copenhagen, arrived in Singapore on July 26 from Shanghai. Working with Hong Lam Marine which received the green methanol from Vopak Terminals, the vessel was refueled with approximately 300 metric tonnes of bio-methanol from the bunker vessel MT Agility. The containership will depart Singapore for the more than 5,300 nautical mile voyage to the Suez Canal.

 

Singapore undertook extensive preparations to ensure the safety of the bunkering operation (MPA)

 

As the voyage continues, Maersk also continues to build out its global supply network for the future fuel that will be required for its fleet of ocean-going methanol dual-fuel ships now on order as well as the other major carriers that have followed with orders for ships. 

SunGas Renewables, a Louisiana-based company spun out of GTI Energy to focus on renewable syngas products announced plans to proceed with the construction of a large green methanol production facility that is expected to supply methanol to Maersk’s fleet. The company plans to invest approximately $2 billion to construct the project at the former International Paper facility in Rapides Parish, Louisiana. Construction is expected to begin in late 2024 with commercial operations commencing in 2027.

“Using biomass from sustainably managed forestry along with carbon capture allows our project to generate green marine shipping fuel while simultaneously removing carbon from the atmosphere,” explains Robert Rigdon, CEO of SunGas Renewables.

The project which will be called Beaver Lake Renewable Energy is expected to produce nearly 400,000 metric tons of green methanol per year for marine fuel. It will utilize wood fiber from local, sustainably-managed forests in the production of the fuel with a carbon sequestration process of nearly a million tons per year of CO2.

In late 2022, SunGas Renewables announced a strategic green methanol partnership with Maersk to produce green methanol from multiple facilities around the United States. The BLRE project is SunGas Renewable’s first facility to produce green methanol for Maersk.

SEA-LNG Highlights Growth of Bio-LNG Bunkering

SEA-LNG highlights the growth of bio-LNG to meet shipping's demands and emerging regulations (CMA CGM file photo)

PUBLISHED JUL 27, 2023 8:26 PM BY THE MARITIME EXECUTIVE

 

SEA-LNG, the industry coalition established to demonstrate the commercial advantages of LNG as a marine fuel, is reporting strong growth in the availability of bio-LNG including in major bunkering ports. Growth of the alternative fuel is increasingly important both to support the expansion of the LNG-fueled fleet and to meet emerging regulations designed to reduce methane emissions as well as support the development of renewable fuels that do not compete with the production of food.

The European Council’s moves this week to complete the adoption of FuelEU Maritime due to become effective in 2025 highlight the critical need for bio-alternative fuels that meet the EU’s Renewable Energy Directive and requirements that fuels do not compete with food production. SEA-LNG reports that the current fleet of 355 LNG-fueled vessels, excluding LNG carriers, are all capable of using bio-LNG as a drop-in fuel without modification. DNV on its Alternative Fuels Insight platform estimates that the LNG-fueled global fleet with grown by 2.5 times in the next five years to nearly 1,000 ships.

SEA-LNG in its market analysis reports that annual production of biomethane, from which bio-LNG is produced, is currently around 30 million tonnes or around 10 percent of shipping’s total annual energy demand. Further, they report that bio-LNG is currently available in almost 70 ports worldwide, including in Singapore, Rotterdam, and the US East Coast. They highlight that bio-LNG can also be transported, stored, and bunkered in ports using the existing LNG infrastructure, which provides a route to further expansion of its availability in coming years.

“The fact that bio-LNG is commercially available now and being used as a drop-in marine fuel by operators in Europe, North America, and Asia, demonstrates the sustained contribution that the LNG pathway can make to decarbonizing our industry, starting today,” said Adi Aggarwal, General Manager of SEA-LNG. “Climate change is a stock and flow problem, the longer our industry waits to start using low-carbon fuels, the tougher the decarbonization challenge will be.”

Bio-LNG used in the maritime industry is produced from sustainable biomass feedstocks such as human or agricultural waste, which means it does not compete with the production of food, fiber, or fodder, as defined by regulations such as the EU’s RED II and the Renewable Fuel Standards in America. SEA-LNG highlights that in general, the use of bio-LNG as a marine fuel can reduce GHG emissions by up to 80 percent compared to marine diesel on a full well-to-wake basis. They further contend that depending on the method of production, bio-LNG can have net-zero or even net-negative GHG emissions on a lifecycle basis.

Environmentalists have been critical of the growth of the LNG fleet pointing to methane slip, the condition where unburnt methane which is especially harmful to the environment is contained in a ship’s exhaust. Global regulations, including an initiative from the UN Climate Summit, specifically are targeting methane slip at all sources from production to the use of LNG as a fuel source. SEA-LNG argues that newer marine engines and technologies are reducing methane slip while additional research is also underway to eliminate methane emissions from ship’s exhausts.

SEA-LNG also addresses the challenge of scaling up bio-methane production to meet demand. The industry coalition cites research from the Nanyang Technological University’s Maritime Energy and Sustainable Development Centre of Excellence (MESD) released in October 2022, showing the global potential for the expansion of biomethane production of up to 20 times current production levels by 2050. Accounting for demand for other sectors, MESD forecasts that bio-LNG as a marine fuel could be available in sufficient quantity to decarbonize approximately 13 percent of the global shipping fleet in 2050. 

HHI Gets Approval for Ammonia-Based Shipboard HVAC Plant

PUBLISHED JUL 27, 2023 10:57 PM BY THE MARITIME EXECUTIVE

 

ABS has issued an approval in principle to HD Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) for its new ammonia-based ship HVAC refrigeration system. 

Ammonia is the most common industrial refrigerant worldwide because of its excellent efficiency and affordable price. In addition, it has zero greenhouse-gas impact, unlike some modern refrigerants, and has no effect on the ozone layer. It is a common refrigerant aboard reefer ships and large fishing vessels, with decades of proven service. 

Ammonia's drawbacks are also well-known, and much discussed in the maritime industry. It is toxic and flammable, and these safety challenges have to be managed in a shipboard environment. Its long history in fishing and in shoreside applications have established its risk/benefit profile, and two research studies recently concluded that it can be used safely as a marine fuel - with the right precautions. Extending its use to merchant shipboard HVAC is a small step towards far larger ammonia-fuel systems. 

HHI developed its new ammonia refrigeration system in response to shipowners’ requests for a more eco-friendly refrigerant for HVAC, the company said in a statement. Ammonia's attractiveness for the owner is in its zero global warming potential, as well as its inherent safety for the ozone layer. Hwan-Sik Lee, head of the ship design office at HD Hyundai Heavy Industries, emphasized that HHI wants to help reduce the GHG footprint of the whole ship, not just the propulsion system. 

“This is an exciting development from HHI for the maritime industry’s decarbonization quest to find sustainable solutions. ABS has always been a safety pioneer, so we are well placed to tackle the challenges on board and ashore presented by ammonia’s toxicity and flammability. ABS is committed to leading the industry in supporting ammonia’s safe adoption at sea,” said Panos Koutsourakis, ABS Vice President, Global Sustainability.