Kpler, Powernext to launch LNG trading platform in Singapore
French data firm Kpler and energy exchange Powernext plan to launch a trading platform for liquefied natural gas (LNG) in Singapore this year, company executives told Reuters, joining a run of firms capitalising on growing spot volumes. The move comes amid a surge in supply of the super-chilled fuel, along with healthy demand, which has triggered a boost in trading as many countries and companies switch from burning coal to cleaner natural gas. The two companies set up Spark Commodities in Singapore in March and have hired Tim Mendelssohn, previously with Koch Supply and Trading and oil major BP, as its managing director. Spark, which is majority-owned by Kpler, aims to launch a trading platform for physical LNG buyers and sellers by the fourth quarter of this year, Mendelssohn told Reuters in an interview this week. Spark will not be alone. Rising spot trading volumes have attracted several companies to launch LNG pricing and trading platforms, including GLX and dominant oil price agency S&P Global Platts. GLX is based in Australia, but Spark will join Platts in Singapore – already Asia’s main oil trading hub – which is vying to establish itself as the main exchange point for the booming LNG market. Unlike oil, which has several liquid financial and physical trading platforms and exchanges, LNG markets are still evolving, and Kpler chief executive and co-founder Francois Cazor said clients had been asking how to trade LNG faster and more efficiently. “To do this, we wanted to create a separate entity to Kpler; one which allowed us to focus on providing greater transparency to commodity flows whilst giving the new entity, Spark, the necessary freedom to focus on price and improving the transaction process,” said Cazor. Kpler is a French data intelligence firm mostly known for its ship tracking and cargo information services, which traders and analysts use to monitor global supply and demand changes for products like oil or LNG. Powernext is part of the European Energy Exchange (EEX), Europe’s biggest wholesale electricity bourse, which also offers natural gas products. EEX, which launched EEX Asia in Singapore last year, is a subsidiary of Germany’s Deutsche Boerse AG exchange group.
Goa: Two years on, govt’s piped gas project remains pipe dream
Goa’s vision for piped gas is still a ‘pipe dream’. Among the factors contributing to the delay are the ongoing highway expansion at Ponda, inability to acquire land at Madkai and lack of a formal nod from the Petroleum and Explosives Safety Organisation (PESO). For over two years, Goa Natural Gas Pvt Ltd (GNGPL) has struggled to implement the Centre’s city gas distribution (CGD) network, but sources say delays by various state departments to classify land has put a spanner in the works. Officials say that while GNGPL has identified and obtained 2,300sqm of land from the Comunidade of Marcaim, the formal acquisition procedure is stuck in red tape. Now, the ongoing Lok Sabha and byelection process has only compounded matters. “The owner has given the NOC and all parties agree on the price, but the government is unable to classify the land due to which the file is yet to reach the cabinet for a final approval,” said a senior official associated with the project. “Clarifications are repeatedly sought and if any clarification is needed, the file gets stuck for three months.” Goa Natural Gas, a joint venture of GAIL GAS Limited (GGL) and Bharat Petroleum Corporation limited (BPCL), has been authorised by the Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB) to build the city gas distribution network in north Goa. GNGPL plans to acquire land at Madkai under the Policy of Procurement of Land of the Rights to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013. The land is required to set up district regulating skids (DRS) or field regulating stations to help reduce the pressure of the gas supply so that it can pass through the low-pressure medium-density polyethylene (MDPE) maze of pipeline network that connects to individual houses. GNGPL is also on the lookout for 200sqm of land in Ponda and Panaji for a similar purpose, but the search has not borne fruit yet, GNGPL officials say. While the Nagpur-based PESO has given the first round of approval to start work, the second permission to commission the facility and commence supply is awaited. PESO has delayed the necessary approval and has sought documents proving that GNGPL has ownership of the land where the DRS will be set up. However, state government departments are struggling to identify whether the earmarked land is agricultural, commercial, settlement or orchard. Until the land has been classified, formal acquisition of the land cannot go ahead, said GNGPL officials.