Equinor says LNG deliveries unaffected by plant shutdown
Norway’s oil and gas firm Equinor said liquefied natural gas (LNG) deliveries to customers have not been affected so far by a shutdown of its Melkoeya LNG plant in northern Norway. The plant, which liquefies natural gas from the Arctic Snoehvit gas field for transportation by tankers, has been shut since January 4 due to a compressor failure. “We are currently working to start up again. As of now, this stop does not affect Equinor’s deliveries to our customers,” spokeswoman Elin Isaksen said in an email on Friday. Equinor said on its website it expected the outage to end on Jan. 14. Refinitiv Eikon data shows only one LNG cargo has left Melkoeya so far this month versus seven cargoes in December and six in January 2018. The LNG tends to be sent to Europe and further afield to Mediterranean ports in Turkey, Egypt and Jordan. The company declined to comment on the arrangements with its customers.
Equinor sets up office in New Delhi to support oil marketing, trading
Norway’s Equinor said on Friday it is setting up an office in India’s capital New Delhi partly to support its oil marketing and trading activities. The company expects to appoint a country manager for the office soon, Equinor’s spokesman said in an e-mail to Reuters. “It will not be a dedicated trading office as such but the office will also support our marketing and trading activities for crude, LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) and other products towards the Indian market,” he said. India is the world’s third largest crude oil importer and it overtook Japan as the world’s second largest LPG importer in 2017. Equinor’s Senior Vice President for trading and marketing, Tor Martin Anfinnsen, said in Singapore last year that the company was opening an office in Tokyo and its first office in India by early 2019 as it expands its presence in Asia. Besides marketing its equity oil from Europe, Africa and the Americas to Asian customers, Equinor also trades oil from Russia and the Middle East. In November, Equinor struck a deal to build and operate an LPG terminal at Port Klang, Malaysia. The terminal could start operating in mid-2021, enabling Equinor to sell LPG to south and southeast Asian countries.
Philippines’ Phoenix gets green light for $2 billion LNG terminal
Philippines firm Phoenix Petroleum said on Friday it has won government approval to build the nation’s first liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminal for $2 billion, in partnership with China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC). Phoenix, a fuel retailer, said it plans to break ground this year for the LNG regasification and receiving terminal south of the capital Manila, in a country that still relies heavily on coal as a fuel source. The company said its Tanglawan Philippine LNG Inc unit, which will undertake the project, is partnering with CNOOC Gas and Power Group Co Ltd, a unit of CNOOC and China’s largest LNG importer and terminal operator. The LNG facility is expected to have a capacity of 2.2 million tonnes per year, with commercial operations targeted to start by 2023, Phoenix said in a regulatory filing. The Philippines has been looking to start importing LNG to feed gas-fired power plants in Batangas, south of the capital, as domestic gas supplies from its Malampaya field are set to run out in 2024 at the earliest. Phoenix, owned by local businessman Dennis Uy who helped bankroll Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s 2016 election campaign, also plans to build a 2,000-megawatt gas-fired power plant as part of the integrated project in Batangas province. Raymond Zorilla, Phoenix vice-president for external affairs, said investments will reach $686 million for the regasification terminal and $1.3 billion for the power plant. Dozens of domestic and foreign companies had expressed interest in the LNG project, but only three groups, including the Phoenix-CNOOC group, were short-listed. The other two were state-owned Philippine National Oil Company and power producer First Gen Corp with Tokyo Gas. Whether the two other groups would be allowed to build their own facilities would depend on the viability of their project proposals, DOE Assistant Secretary Leonido Pulido told Reuters. First Gen operates four power plants in Batangas with a combined capacity of about 2,000 MW, all running on Malampaya natural gas. The Malampaya gas field, which lies near the disputed South China Sea waters and is operated by a unit of Royal Dutch Shell Plc, fuels plants that supply about 40 percent of the power for the main Luzon island.
How India Inc. plans to become LNG friendly nation driving overall demand?
Globally LNG market dynamics are changing fast as the industry is still at the evolution stage and right mature sustainable business models are yet to be realised among the players. Commoditization or consolidation in the trade activities is still under contemplation within the industry. 2018 was yet another year showing a consistent increase in global LNG demand reaching to abt 310 MMTPA. Most of the growth as compared to 2017 came from China, Japan, South Korea, and India, with China contributing almost half of the growth. On the supply side, US is on the full throttle with the advent of shale gas, to lead the world as a major exporting hub with capacity ramping up fast. New FIDs are going to take shape in coming years and competitive pricing offered for US gas will play the major pivotal role in LNG supply chain transformation resulting in several SPAs across the globe. India is currently ranked 4th globally for driving LNG demand behind established gas driven economies China, Japan, and South Korea. Top demand drivers from Asia (China, Japan, South Korea, and India) are all in their own time zones of following their own gas driven economic strategies. Japan will restart its nuclear plant in 2020 and China will start getting its gas supplies through Russian pipelines by 2020-21. These two major developments will put the pressure on the demand side of the global LNG supply chain resulting in dampening of growth rate in China & Japan. Meanwhile, India is sitting on a plethora of opportunities to become a gas driven economy and change the face of the game. Here’s how India has prepared itself for bigger LNG game : 1) India’s position as a founder in global LNG trade: India’s LNG growth can be compared to any typical startup with a huge TAM(Total Addressable Market) and high growth business potential on its plate. Such a business model comes with its own risks such as industry technicalities, financial, geopolitical and many others which cannot be easily controlled. In such cases, it is advisable to take baby steps first in the best possible beachhead market and make all efforts to make the model successful in that market. Once the feasibility is tested from all angles in this market, it is now possible to apply the repeatability model to replicate success in other markets with easy and fast execution. To Start this journey, India Inc. selected this beachhead market as the State of Gujarat. 2) Gujarat State as Beachhead : Gujarat is the most vibrant maritime state on the west coast of India and is the leader in gas-fuelled energy diversification. Gujarat’s gas story began in 1972 and today natural gas comprises 25% of the energy mix in the state which is higher than the world’s average of 24%. Several gas companies are operating and cover approximately 85% of the state through 469 CNG stations, catering to 1 Million NGVs daily. India’s average energy mix is 6.2% with a national total of 1491 CNG stations and 3.2 million NGVs. Gujrat alone operates more than 30% of these CNG stations and NGVs in the country. To tap International gas, India inc. set up India’s first RLNG terminal at Dahej in 2004 and Immediately just in 2005, second LNG terminal was commissioned in Hazira. With this security in gas supplies, Govt of Gujarat (GoG) revised the legislation to make CNG as compulsory fuel for vehicles and became the first in India to do so. The year 2018 was remarkable again adding the 3rd RLNG terminal in Gujarat state at Mundra port. Hence, Gujarat has been prepared as a model state prototype by India Inc. to lead in NGV, Gas and RLNG distribution in India. 3)Petronet LNG as a Chief LNG architect for the country: Petronet LNG Ltd (PLL) backed by GAIL, ONGC, BPCL, IOC , was the pioneer of LNG import in India from Gujarat state and leads the country in fulfilling LNG requirements of the country with current capacity of 20 MMTPA and 7.5 MMTPA as further proposed expansion making total of 27.5 MMTPA. This will enable PLL to fulfill country’s gas hunger from all directions West (Dahej), South (Kochi) and East(Gangavaram). 4) Role of other players as key market enablers: India inc. backed by key oil and gas players such as GAIL, ONGC, BPCL, and IOC have been committed to making India clean energy and pollution free country. In the past decade, private players have increasingly come forward to contribute and capitalize on country’s plan towards gas driven strategy. Shell(Hazira), HEnergy (Jaigarh /Kolkata), Adani (Mundra/Dhamra), Swan(Jafrabad), Shapoorji Pallonji (Charra), KRPEL/LNG Bharat(Krishnapatnam), are the few players who are already active in the market. These companies are not only applying new innovative ideas & business models to reduce the LNG cost for the end consumers but also contributing to establishing distribution network across the country along with Govt agencies to develop India as a gas friendly nation by taking gas access to every corner of the country. With a strong team in action at all levels in the country, Here’s how India will play the key pivotal role in driving LNG demand in the years to come: (1) LNG for power generation & combating pollution: Long time usage of dirty fuels like coal and fuel oil have resulted in severe pollution and depleted the air quality to dangerous levels in various cities across India. The same situation was faced by China sometime back forcing them to switch to LNG as cleaner fuel option to combat pollution, giving rise to LNG import in the country in the past few years. Air quality index is at dangerous levels for most of the major cities in India and strict measures to fight air pollution is the number one agenda for Indian Govt. The only solution India has is to follow China’s path and reduce the dependency on coal & oil and increase the usage of LNG as a fuel for power generation. The Indian government is keen
Iraq to proceed with oil exploration with Iran
Iraq’s oil minister says Iraq and Iran are jointly exploring two oil fields shared by the two countries, despite US efforts to isolate Iran from global oil markets. Thamer Ghadhban says Iraq is honoring an existing exploration agreement with neighboring Iran. He received Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh in Baghdad on Thursday. The US has been pressuring Iraq to break its energy dependence in Iran since it reinstated sanctions against the Islamic Republic last year. Iraq imports gas and electricity from Iran to meet its energy needs. The US granted Iraq a sanctions waiver until March to continue buying gas from Iran, after which Iraq could face punitive measures. Zanganeh said Iran was ready to increase gas sales to its neighbor.
Peru discusses importing natural gas through pipeline from Bolivia
Energy ministers from Peru and Bolivia agreed on Thursday to discuss building a pipeline that would transport natural gas and liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Bolivia to its neighbor. The pipeline would provide crucial access to the Pacific Ocean for land-locked Bolivia, running to Peru’s southern port of Ilo. Bolivia had wanted to build a pipeline through Chile to reach the ocean and expand its gas exports, but the International Court of Justice ruled against Bolivia’s demand that Chile negotiate granting it sovereign access to the sea in October. Bolivia is South America’s top natural gas exporter, but it is a net importer of oil, as is neighboring Peru. Bolivia told Peru it would also like to build an oil pipeline to Peru and import gasoline, diesel and crude through Ilo. Peru did not mention that an oil pipeline was under consideration. “We’re interested in investing in Peru’s Ilo port. We’re working to build a large storage plant for imports of gasoline, diesel and crude,” Bolivian Energy and Mines Minister Luis Alberto Sanchez said in a statement following his meeting with counterpart Francisco Ismodes. Talks between Peru and Bolivia also include the creation of a joint venture between Bolivian state energy company YPFB and its Peruvian counterpart, Petroperu, to commercialize LNG in border regions, Bolivia said. Neither country gave a timeframe for implementing the projects discussed or the cost, but they said they would meet again in February.
Iraq to proceed with oil exploration with Iran
Iraq’s oil minister says Iraq and Iran are jointly exploring two oil fields shared by the two countries, despite US efforts to isolate Iran from global oil markets. Thamer Ghadhban says Iraq is honoring an existing exploration agreement with neighboring Iran. He received Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh in Baghdad on Thursday. The US has been pressuring Iraq to break its energy dependence in Iran since it reinstated sanctions against the Islamic Republic last year. Iraq imports gas and electricity from Iran to meet its energy needs. The US granted Iraq a sanctions waiver until March to continue buying gas from Iran, after which Iraq could face punitive measures. Zanganeh said Iran was ready to increase gas sales to its neighbor.