World Gas Intelligence articles from April 2006

World Gas Intelligence archives from April 2006

US Q1 LNG imports sag.
April 5, 2006... US LNG imports sank in the first quarter to levels not seen since 2003. Contributing to the poor volume showing was this winter's highly competitive LNG market, which saw Europeans and East Asians ready to pay large premiums to US buyers....

Algeria's New Skikda train on hold.
April 5, 2006... Problems resulting from rising LNG project costs have popped up in yet another spot--Algeria (WGI Mar.29,p8). Contrary to reports last October, construction hasn't yet started at the 4 million ton per year Skikda train that is to replace...

Qatari LNG projects, shipping advance.
April 5, 2006... Activity on Qatari LNG projects targeting the US is beginning to pick up after a long quiet spell. The ConocoPhillips-partnered Qatargas-3 and Royal Dutch Shell-partnered Qatargas-4 projects both broke ground last weekend. This followed by...

Baltic pipe advances, against the current.
April 5, 2006... Russia and Germany are advancing with plans to build the North European Gas Pipeline (NEGP) beneath the Baltic Sea direct to Germany--even as controversy and uncertainty continue to dog the project. The Swiss-registered North European Gas...

Pakistan looking everywhere for gas.
April 5, 2006... Unlike neighboring India, Pakistan has gas at the core of its energy mix. Gas contributed more than 50% to primary energy supply of 55 million tons of oil equivalent (5.9 billion cubic feet per day gas equivalent) last year. So with...

Brussels attacks energy nationalism.
April 5, 2006... European Union efforts to build integrated, competitive gas and power markets are being undermined by member states' efforts to bolster domestic incumbents in the face predatory advances by international firms that are seeking to build...

BG arbitrage profit.
April 5, 2006... Arbitrage trading of cargoes into Europe and Japan meant BG's operating profit for the first quarter beat market expectations, exceeding 130 million [pounds sterling] ($225 million), the group said in a trading update to the stock exchange....

Gassi Touil going, mulls cost solutions.
April 5, 2006... Carlos Berenguer, general manager of the integrated Gassi Touil LNG project in Algeria, told WGI this week that, so far, everything seems to indicate first production from the project--backed by Spain's Repsol YPF and Gas Natural (GN) and...

Market insight: US looks up again.(Insight)
April 5, 2006... The bulls were on the offensive in the New York futures market during the late March bid-week trading that set the level for much of the baseload gas pricing in the US this month, keeping the April contract solidly above $7 per million Btu....

Western US generators may need more gas this summer.(CURRENT)
April 5, 2006... As a result of the unexpected run-up in North American gas prices over the last few years, power generators in the US West and Southwest--particularly Arizona and California--would rather use their many shiny new gas-fired power plants as...

New cargo technology means even more Qatar LNG coming.(Horizon)
April 5, 2006... LNG shipping technology is getting a major overhaul in a new fleet of "Q-Flex" and "Q-Max" carriers being built in South Korea over the next three years for state Qatar Petroleum (QP) and Exxon Mobil, with an eye to cutting costs on the massive...

Cheniere's marketing mode.
April 12, 2006... US LNG developer Cheniere Energy is still inventing itself. As recently as last year, the tiny start-up terminal developer and very big perspective player in US LNG imports was talking up its role as middleman, offering US receiving capacity to...

Turkmenistan eyes gas sales to China.
April 12, 2006... Turkmenistan's hopes of easing its dependence on Russia for access to gas import markets got a psychological--and possibly even a genuine--boost from a recent six-day visit by its President Saparmurat Niyazov to energy-hungry China. ...

Iran angle to Golar's new LNG link.
April 12, 2006... Shipowner Golar LNG has agreed to buy a stake rising to 19.8% in Australia-listed Liquefied Natural Gas Limited (LNGL) for US$8.3 million, giving it a strategic rapport with a tiny firm targeting niche markets in the Middle East, Asia and...

Bolivian gas cut a reminder for Brazil.
April 12, 2006... The torrential rain that caused a massive mudslide in Bolivia's gas-rich Chaco region, damaging a 2,624 foot stretch of pipeline that feeds into the Gasbol system, exposed a weakness in Brazil's energy matrix: the dependence of Latin America's...

Equatorial Guinea LNG racing ahead.
April 12, 2006... Gabriel Nguema Lima, Equatorial Guinea's vice minister for energy and mines, told WGI last week that the first train of the Equatorial Guinea LNG project (EGLNG) should be ready ahead of schedule, before third-quarter 2007. All 3.4 million tons...

Cameron questions.
April 12, 2006... Construction is proceeding apace at Sempra's 1.5 Bcf/d (11.25 million ton/yr) Cameron LNG terminal in Hackberry, Louisiana, with completion expected by late 2008 and expansion to 2.65 Bcf/d tentatively fixed for 2010. But like the majority of...

Spain, Nigeria project.
April 12, 2006... Spain continues to expand as a real and potential LNG market of global proportions, opening new terminals and signing up for new supply projects. Late last week, Spain's Repsol YPF and Gas Natural (GN) signed a memorandum of understanding...

Gazprom-a-go-go.
April 12, 2006... Gazprom continues to pursue a multi-pronged strategy aimed both at getting it into the LNG business and giving it tighter control over the infrastructure for its pipeline gas sales. The Russian company has sold its first LNG cargo into the...

UK gas use slips.
April 12, 2006... In the UK gas sector, almost everything was down in 2005--except for imports and, of course, prices. UK gas consumption at 104.5 billion cubic meters (1,100.7 terawatt hours of gas) was 2.3% lower than in 2004, according to figures in...

Irish gloom lightens.
April 12, 2006... Ireland's ambitions to boost domestic gas production and reduce growing reliance on imports have so far come to little. But after being pushed back for years, progress may be coming on development of Royal Dutch Shell's Corrib field, even as...

Market insight: Asia still buying.(Insight)
April 12, 2006... LNG is continuing to make its way out of the Atlantic Basin to East Asia this month, albeit at both volumes and prices substantially lower than those seen last winter. South Korea and Taiwan are each taking an Atlantic Basin cargo for...

Soaring European carbon prices inflate power costs.(CURRENT)
April 12, 2006... Prices for carbon dioxide (CO2) emission permits in Europe's emissions trading scheme (ETS)--or European Union allowances (EUAs) as they are called--continue to set records, soaring above the 30 [euro] ($36) per metric ton mark, versus around...

Handicapping top US Gulf Coast LNG terminal projects.(Horizon)
April 12, 2006... LNG import terminal developers once envisioned more than two dozen potential projects dotting the US Gulf Coast and adjacent offshore waters, as well as three in the neighboring Bahamas, plus major expansions of two existing facilities. The...

Turkey: trader or transit spot?
April 26, 2006... "We're not only interested in transit. We would like to be involved in trade... Our intent is to act as a trade and transit country," a senior official from Botas, Turkey's state pipeline operator, told WGI last week when questioned about the...

Total signs final Qatargas-2 contract.
April 26, 2006... French major Total has finally concluded supply and purchase agreements for the 5.2 million tons per year that it tentatively agreed over a year ago to buy from the Qatargas-2 LNG venture for 25 years beginning in late 2008, sources tell WGI....

Japan seeks LNG security as operator.
April 26, 2006... The evolving geopolitics of the global LNG trade is motivating Japanese companies to seek large, operating stakes in gas development and even liquefaction projects, rather than the minority shares they accepted in the past. The first...

Trade inspiring moves in northwest Europe.
April 26, 2006... Dutch state gas grid operator Gasunie plans to add 500 kilometers of pipelines and four compressor stations to its network, at an estimated cost of [euro]1 billion[euro]1.5 billion ($1.25 billion-S1.85 billion). Focused on a northeast to...

Syria, maybe Lebanon to buy Egyptian gas.
April 26, 2006... Syria is in negotiations with Egypt to import 2 billion cubic meters per year (193 million cubic feet per day) of Egyptian gas through the Arab Gas Pipeline to satisfy growing demand for power generation following delays to its own gas...

India's pipe problems.
April 26, 2006... Making India's problems in lining up new LNG look all the more worrisome, the country's prospects for obtaining imported pipeline gas are slammed in a recent report by US consultants KPMG entitled India Energy Outlook (WGI Apr.19,p1). ...

Falling price forecasts.
April 26, 2006... Given the record US gas surplus born of a freakishly warm winter, gas market analysts have scaled back price forecasts for second-quarter 2006 by an average of $1.78 per million Btu over the last three months to an even $7/MMBtu, according to...

Slow going for Trinidad's Train X.
April 26, 2006... As many LNG producers gallop ahead to turn reserves into money in an increasingly tight global marketplace. Trinidad and Tobago--after years of frantic growth that made the small island nation the largest LNG supplier to the US--is taking a...

Market insight: US back buying LNG.(Insight)
April 26, 2006... With spring in full bloom, global spot LNG flows have undergone a shift typical of the season. But the movement is unusually pronounced, with European and Asian LNG imports sagging as US intake perks up. Although weak European demand over...

Patchy progress puts EU renewables targets at risk.(Current)
April 26, 2006... Increased use of renewable power is one of the main pillars of European Union efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. However, while capacity is growing, progress varies between member states, and if current trends continue, the EU will...

Canadian gas supplies to US on sharp decline curve.(Horizon)
April 26, 2006... For 20 years, Canada has provided the increment needed to satisfy a seemingly unquenchable US thirst for natural gas, even as US domestic output remained flat at best. However, the days when the US could regard Canada as a vast, functionally...