World Gas Intelligence articles from August 2005

World Gas Intelligence archives from August 2005

Trinidad advances ALNG.
August 3, 2005... After protracted negotiations between the government and oil companies, Trinidad and Tobago's Atlantic LNG project appears to be gathering pace. Local sources tell WGI that the investment decision for Train 4--due on line before the end of the...

UK group seeks LNG appeal.
August 3, 2005... A local group seeking to overturn planning consents for two giant UK LNG import terminals, due to be built by end-2007 along the Milford Haven coastline, formally lodged a request with the Court of Appeal in London on Aug. 1 for safety issues...

India backs Mangalore.
August 3, 2005... Oil and Natural Gas Corp. (ONGC) has gotten the nod for a $5 billion combined power, gas and petrochemicals facility in Mangalore on India's southwestern coast. The state company succeeded in obtaining an approval from the prime minister's...

UK pipe flips, as storage sold.
August 3, 2005... Interconnector UK, the gas pipe linking England to Belgium, announced its earliest ever prewinter flow reversal last week, switching to "UK import mode" from 6 a.m. on Friday, Jul. 29, then back to export flows into the continent over the...

Repsol: Peru LNG's sole marketer.
August 3, 2005... Repsol YPF announced Monday the acquisition of a 20% stake in the Peru LNG project, which is targeted at US and Mexican west coast markets, and moreover has agreed to market the venture's entire production. Following an agreement between...

Gazprom to start direct sales in Italy.
August 3, 2005... In line with its strategy to expand marketing activities in Western Europe, Russia's Gazprom last week signed an agreement with Italy's Eni, enabling the Russian company to sell gas directly to Italian consumers starting from 2006. Under...

PetroChina to build Hebei terminal.
August 3, 2005... PetroChina will invest l0 billion yuan ($1.2 billion) in an LNG terminal to be built in Tangshan in Hebei province in northern China, a representative said Tuesday. Analysts say the project would fill growing demand for gas in cities like...

Reliance plans tie-ups in power.
August 3, 2005... Reliance Energy has started negotiations with leading Asian energy companies to find strategic partners for a proposed mega power project in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh. It is trying to rope in Japan's Tokyo Electric (Tepco) and...

Brazil drafts gas law.
August 3, 2005... Brazil's government is drafting a new gas law that if approved would deregulate gas pipeline transport, which today remains a monopoly of state oil company Petrobras. If passed, the law would open to competition the last remaining...

Large ship tenders firmed up.
August 3, 2005... Results of recent large LNG shipping tenders suggest that a handful of tanker owners are consolidating their dominance in a fiercely competitive field. On Monday, South Korea's top three shipyards announced orders for 12 LNG carriers, for...

Market insight: heat spikes US prices.(Insight)
August 3, 2005... Combine blistering heat with the uncertainty of a hyperactive hurricane season, mix it with a return of deep-pocketed fund account buying and add a large dose of sharply ascending technical indicators, and you've got a recipe for all the...

High power prices test Ontario's coal phase-out plan.(CURRENT)
August 3, 2005... The support of consumers in Ontario for the "culture of conservation" fostered by that Canadian province's government is being sorely tested. Less than three months after the Apr. 30 closure of the 1,148 megawatt Lakeview power plant near...

NGLs enjoy price advantage in petchem market.(Horizon)
August 3, 2005... High gas prices generally translate into hard times for the US petrochemicals industry. However, outside of the beleaguered methanol-ammonia-fertilizer sector, US petrochemicals manufacturers are competing quite well at the moment in the...

Hottest US gas play--NGLs.
August 10, 2005... If natural gas was once the unwanted stepchild of oil, the natural gas liquids (NGLs) business was the stepchild of gas in the US. No longer. The primary market for NGLs--ethane, propane, butane and pentanes or condensates--is the...

Italy gets market opening LNG code.
August 10, 2005... The LNG Regasification Code published last week by Italy's energy market regulator Autorita should go some way toward opening up a market that, despite initially high expectations, has to date lagged well behind Spain in its development as an...

What next for CNOOC in gas?
August 10, 2005... Rejected in its high-profile foray into the US market, China National Offshore Oil Corp. (CNOOC) and its 70%-owned and independently listed subsidiary CNOOC Ltd. are now considering their strategic direction and the best path toward growth....

Gazprom makes its LNG trading debut.
August 10, 2005... Marking its much heralded entry into LNG trading, Gazprom Marketing & Trading (GMT), the UK-based trading subsidiary of Russian Gazprom, has executed agreements with Royal Dutch Shell and BG Group for the pipeline gas trading giant's first LNG...

Speculative Woodside Pluto LNG project.
August 10, 2005... Woodside's plan to develop an LNG project based mainly on reserves from its newly appraised Pluto field off Western Australia indicates just how drastically the Asian LNG business model is changing--despite efforts by Australian exporters to...

Gas man Tillerson.
August 10, 2005... Rex Tillerson, who was confirmed last week as the successor to Lee Raymond as chairman and chief executive of Exxon Mobil when Raymond retires at the end of the year, has notably more experience on both the gas and the commercial sides of the...

Sonatrach, Statoil ties.
August 10, 2005... Supply for a planned expansion of the Cove Point, Maryland, US LNG receiving terminal looks to be one issue behind a memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed Aug. 4 by Algerian state Sonatrach and Norway's Statoil to extend their cooperation in...

Nigerian spot deals help Excelerate.
August 10, 2005... Nigeria LNG has in the past two weeks created a flurry of activity in short-term Atlantic Basin markets with the release of three spot cargoes, tendered on an f.o.b, basis for lifting between Jul. 28 and Sep. 2. Excelerate Energy looks to be...

Market insight: Korean demand.(Insight)
August 10, 2005... In anticipation of 4% annual gas demand growth and expiry later this decade of several LNG purchase contracts with Indonesia, South Korean utilities are likely to launch tenders later this year or early next for the long-term purchase of a...

Power generators tilting away from gas even in Texas.(CURRENT)
August 10, 2005... Texas blazed the trail for power deregulation and gas-fired generation in the US (WGI Jun. 22, p7). Now it is setting out to adjust its power generation mix in favor of competing fuels--a trend that other parts of the US may well follow. In a...

Investment funds become massive buyers of utility assets.(Horizon)
August 10, 2005... Once there was a sprinkling of deals in which energy suppliers and utilities sold off assets--often to suit the perceived tastes of the investment community--only to see pension and private equity funds from that same community snap up the...

Japanese price hedging.
August 17, 2005... With Asian LNG import prices still largely linked to oil, it should be possible for Japanese and other importers to hedge their costs by buying forward contracts in the mix of crudes known as the "JCC" against which that LNG is priced. Indeed,...

Egypt sells to Israel, eyes Gaza gas swap.
August 17, 2005... Years of gas import talks between Israel and Egypt finally bore fruit when state Israel Electric Corp. (IEC) this month signed a commercial agreement to import gas from the East Mediterranean Group (EMG), composed of state Egyptian Natural Gas...

Rain exposes Canadian output risks.
August 17, 2005... The "just-in-time" gas flows that Canadian producers have been maintaining through active drilling programs in Alberta didn't quite make it this spring (WGI Jan. 12,p2). It now looks as if output fell behind by 500 million cubic feet per day or...

Federal, state LNG battle joined in US.
August 17, 2005... The Energy Policy Act signed into law by President George W. Bush aims to advance the case of US LNG terminal developers by increasing and more clearly defining federal powers in the permitting process. However, states retain substantial powers...

Repsol's two-terminal Peru LNG quandry.
August 17, 2005... The gas reserves are booked. Land for the liquefaction plant south of Lima is secured. Now at Peru LNG, the one question mark is which Mexican receiving terminal will pipe the Peruvian gas to Mexico's gas-hungry clients. Two terminals are...

Dutch LNG drive.
August 17, 2005... Dutch state gas network Gasunie and oil terminals group Vopak said Tuesday they have started a joint feasibility study on an LNG receiving terminal at Maasvlakte near Rotterdam, appearing to opt against an alternative site at Eemshaven closer...

Fenosa Gas surges.
August 17, 2005... Union Fenosa Gas (UFG), the 50-50 joint venture of Spain's third largest power generator Union Fenosa and Italy's Eni, now accounts for 10% of Spain's liberalized gas market and 8% of the country's total gas sales. That's quite a jump from...

Arab pipe to Turkey.
August 17, 2005... Egyptian gas could be making its way through Turkey into Europe within two years, according to plans for a third phase of the Arab Gas Pipeline agreed to this week by Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Turkey. The three governments agreed to form a...

Market insight: summer UK flows.(Insight)
August 17, 2005... In the late 1990s, summer in Northwest Europe was a season of surplus gas, often sold by producers at a bulk discount to any buyers willing to take it off the prompt market and put it into storage. Fast forward to 2005, and the picture is very...

Coal gasification gets big boost from new US energy law.(Current)
August 17, 2005... The 2005 Energy Policy Act just adopted in the US could give a major boost to already increasingly popular advanced coal gasification technology for both power generation and industrial use (WGI Feb.23,p7). First, because it mirrors many of the...

Mega LNG terminals set to change life in US gas patch.(Horizon)
August 17, 2005... With several new LNG receiving terminals approved along the US Gulf Coast and two now under construction that may each turn into mega-facilities, the saturation point for US receiving capacity for the next decade or longer looks to be...

Venezuelan gas: what next?
August 24, 2005... Venezuelan Energy Minister Rafael Ramirez last Friday put a dramatic end to three years of speculation about Venezuela's Mariscal Sucre LNG project: The two foreign partners, Royal Dutch Shell and Mitsubishi, are out. State Petroleos de...

RasGas Train 4 mystery sales.
August 24, 2005... Mystery surrounds the commercial arrangements at Qatar's RasGas 2 project. Its Train 4 is due on stream this year, but the immediate fate of the 4.7 million tons per year it is designed to produce remains unclear, while a few years down the...

India facing much higher LNG costs.
August 24, 2005... As benchmark Henry Hub US gas prices approach $10 per million Btu and oil prices circle $65 per barrel, it's becoming clear that if it wants incremental LNG, new importer India will have to accept the prospect of paying a lot more than the...

New US Rockies pipe keeps LNG in mind.
August 24, 2005... Although the US West Coast is much closer geographically, Rocky Mountain gas producers may be deciding that more distant markets in the Midwest and mid-Atlantic regions could be more lucrative for their growing supplies (WGI Jul. 14, p8). If...

Gazprom storage play.
August 24, 2005... State-controlled Gazprom is pushing ahead with the expansion of gas storage facilities outside of Russia as part of its strategy to bolster direct downstream involvement as a means to increase gas sales to European markets. However, storage...

Libyan Greenstream.
August 24, 2005... Italy's Eni is gearing up to start producing gas early next month from the 6 billion cubic meter per year (580 million cubic foot per day) offshore phase of the giant 10 Bcm/yr West Libya Gas project it runs jointly with Libya's National Oil...

Tepco buys short-term.
August 24, 2005... Tokyo Electric Power Co. (Tepco) has signed up with Abu Dhabi and Malaysian state Petronas for a total of 1.2 million tons of short-term LNG supply in the year ending March 2006, Tepco officials confirm. But Japan's largest utility has no...

Atlantic LNG outage.
August 24, 2005... Trinidad and Tobago's Atlantic LNG (ALNG) project has provided some excitement in Atlantic Basin markets this month. Sources close to the project tell WGI that ALNG's Train 1 has been shut down since Aug. 2 for what was intended to be a...

US gas inventories suddenly look thin.
August 24, 2005... The North American summer has been warmer than normal this year, boosting demand for gas in the electric power sector as consumers keep air conditioners humming. In fact, gas demand has soaked up the surplus over average storage inventories for...

Market insight: spot scarcity.(Insight)
August 24, 2005... Although US LNG receiving terminals moved swiftly and dramatically into the lead in terms of LNG exporter netbacks over the past month, the LNG spot trade has yet to respond, apparently due in part at least to production issues in both Trinidad...

Russian power reform on wobbly track, Gazprom looms.(CURRENT)
August 24, 2005... Russia's always contentious electricity sector reform process has become all the more controversial since the massive May 27 Moscow blackout, and Gazprom has moved into an even more central position in that controversy. Early this month the gas...

Could new US-led climate pact scuttle Kyoto Protocol?(Horizon)
August 24, 2005... A new "clean development" pact supported by arch Kyoto Protocol-opponents the US and Australia attracted only modest attention when it was signed by those two countries plus China, India, Japan and South Korea in late July, just weeks after the...

Spot LNG squeeze.
August 31, 2005... The global LNG spot market is looking tighter and tighter. Even as demand is ballooning in all key markets, squeeze points have cropped up on the supply side in the form of unplanned outages at LNG plants and unusually long ramp-up periods at...

BP to supply Korea from Egypt, Mideast.
August 31, 2005... BP is counting on supplies from Egypt and the Middle East to feed the groundbreaking LNG import terminal recently opened by private South Korean companies Posco and K Power, because of delays in commissioning Indonesia's Tangguh LNG project to...

Petrobras likes gas--Gasbol included.
August 31, 2005... After a long lull through the early years of this decade, Brazilian gas demand is shooting up so rapidly that state-controlled Petrobras has upped by 18% to $6.5 billion the expenditures set aside for gas investment in its five-year business...

Reliance delay pushes NTPC towards LNG.
August 31, 2005... A delay of up to three years in first production from Reliance Industries deepwater fields off India's East Coast to 2008-09 may at last push the leading customer for that gas, state utility National Thermal Power Corp. (NTPC), to buy LNG for...

Gazprom eyes German preelection deal.
August 31, 2005... Russia's Gazprom and Germany's E.On Ruhrgas and BASF are likely next week to sign an agreement to build the North Europe Gas Pipeline (NEGP) that would carry Russian gas directly to Western Europe, according to media reports, confirmed to WGI...

Yemen LNG shipping.
August 31, 2005... The French Total-led Yemen LNG project is gathering pace. The government of Yemen last week gave final approval to the project, and Total expects to award construction contracts "in the coming days." The two-train facility at the port of...

Market disarray follows US hurricane.
August 31, 2005... US gas markets were thrown into disarray when Hurricane Katrina plowed through prime Gulf of Mexico production territory Monday, just as the New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex) September contract was set to roll off the board. With the...

Market insight: euro end-user rises.(Insight)
August 31, 2005... The continuing surge in crude and oil product markets over the three months since April is mirrored in rising end-user gas prices in Western Europe's largest markets, as demonstrated in assessments for July gathered by Energy Advice for WGI...

Spain keeps on building CCGTs as quickly as it can.(CURRENT)
August 31, 2005... Spain's dash-for-gas in power generation continues unabated. A plethora of new construction underway or planned should boost the share of gas in Spain's power generation mix to around 18% this year, double its share at the start of 2000. The...

Bolivian prospects pulled up by rising regional prices.(Horizon)
August 31, 2005... Ironically, embattled Bolivia could yet end up the winner from all the hullabaloo surrounding South America's so-called Energy Ring, a project dreamed up in its most recent manifestation largely by Chile and Peru as a means of coping with...

WGI supplement: European end-user prices.
August 31, 2005... WGI SUPPLEMENT: European End-User Prices (in Eurocents/kWh) Gas Prices: 100,000 cm/yr Typical High Low Belgium Jul. '05 2.71 2.75 ...