A former chairman and CEO at San Diego Gas & Electric is stepping down as a top executive at Sempra, the Fortune 500 energy giant that is the parent company of SDG&E.
Kevin Sagara is retiring as group president overseeing the infrastructure businesses of SDG&E and Southern California Gas Company, the two California-based utilities in Sempra’s stable of businesses. The 62-year-old has worked at Sempra-affiliated companies for nearly 30 years and his resignation takes effect Dec. 1.
“He’s had a really amazing career here, made significant contributions to our success and will be greatly missed,” Sempra CEO Jeff Martin said during the company’s third-quarter earnings call with Wall Street brokerage firms on Friday.
Sempra has a history of hiring from within and Sagara served as SDG&E’s CEO and chairman from August 2018 to June 2020. His other posts included president of Sempra Renewables.
“Now, as I transition to a new phase of life,” Sagara said in an email to the Union-Tribune, “I eagerly anticipate more time spent with my family traveling, and lending my support to nonprofit organizations that share my passion for improving the environment.”
During Friday’s call, Sempra reported adjusted earnings of $685 million in the third quarter, an improvement of $63 million compared to the same quarter last year. Profits through Sept. 30 came to $2.201 billion — up from $2.172 for the first three quarters of 2022.
The company expects to meet or surpass the high end of its adjusted earnings per share forecast range for the year of $4.30 to $4.60.
“The directional raise is consistent with the upside we highlighted into the quarter and continues the beat and raise track record that Sempra has established over the past few years,” J.P. Morgan analysts said in a note, as reported by Reuters.
Sempra in 2018 purchased the Texas utility Oncor and surging population growth in the Lone Star State has helped drive company performance. In the past three months, Oncor connected about 20,000 additional premises in its service territory and built, rebuilt and upgraded about 630 miles of transmission and distribution lines.
“Our pro-business climate (in Texas) is well documented,” Oncor Chief Executive Allen Nye said.
SDG&E’s adjusted earnings from July through September came to $274 million, up $3 million compared to the third quarter of 2022.
Sempra Infrastructure, the subsidiary that features projects that send liquefied natural gas, or LNG, via tankers to markets around the world, reported adjusted profits of $187 million in the third quarter. That’s a 24.7 percent increase compared to the third quarter of last year.
The company in September received federal approval to expand its $13 billion Port Arthur LNG project that is under construction on the Texas Gulf Coast. Sempra Infrastructure is also the majority owner of the Cameron LNG facility in Louisiana, which has been shipping gas to foreign markets since August 2020.
Company officials said Friday that the construction of an export component to the already existing Energía Costa Azul LNG import facility near Ensenada, Mexico is on schedule for summer 2025.
Sempra Infrastructure is also collaborating with Mitsubishi and a consortium of Japanese utilities to explore the possibility of producing what’s called “e-natural gas” — a synthetic, carbon-neutral, natural gas derived from renewable hydrogen and recycled carbon dioxide.
If it works and is cost-effective, the project is anticipated to produce 130,000 metric tons of gas per year that would be shipped from Cameron and exported to Japan. “It’s an exciting time to be in the LNG space,” Sempra Infrastructure CEO Justin Bird said during Friday’s call.
In the LNG process, export facilities take natural gas via pipelines and cool it to minus 260 degrees Fahrenheit. They then load the liquefied gas onto specially made cargo tanks on double-hulled ships that take the LNG to international destinations.
LNG supporters say natural gas has helped reduce net global greenhouse gas emissions because it burns much cleaner than coal, although climate activists say exporting LNG extends the world’s dependence on fossil fuels.
