World Gas Intelligence articles from August 2008

World Gas Intelligence archives from August 2008

Eni's Iberian issues.
August 6, 2008... Italy's Eni may have resolved its takeover of Belgian marketer Distrigas, which will give the Italian group a 21% share of the European Union gas market. Now it faces a challenge, or maybe an opportunity, over its half-stake in Spain's Union...

E.On switches LNG projects.
August 6, 2008... Germany's largest gas supplier, E.On Ruhrgas, said on Tuesday that it has committed to booking 3 billion cubic meters (2.2 million tons) per year at the Gate LNG terminal project in Rotterdam and to taking 5% equity in the project. E.On's...

West Coast projects eye Asian partners.
August 6, 2008... LNG receiving terminals on the American West Coast are only starting to develop, yet already both customers and suppliers in Asia are showing interest in these new strategic locations, which could innovate and expand global LNG trade. With much...

Reliance endures Indian reversal.
August 6, 2008... India pioneered free market prices when it launched its New Exploration Licensing Policy (Nelp) in 1997. Just over a decade later--and just as such blocks are about to swing into production--the government has changed the rules. The...

Algeria's mixed fortunes in 2007.
August 6, 2008... Algeria's state Sonatrach last year produced more natural gas than in 2006-153 billion cubic meters against the previous year's 149.5 Bcm, much of which is for oil-field reinjection--but saw gas export earnings fall by 4.7%. Total gas export...

GTLs: Exxon in, Chevron out?
August 6, 2008... Reports that Exxon Mobil and state Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. (NNPC) were considering a 100,000 barrel per day project that would produce either gasoline or diesel have been circulating for months. Late last month, Exxon affiliate Mobil...

South African bids.
August 6, 2008... South African state PetroSA is sifting through five bids to develop an offshore LNG import project targeted for operation by mid-2010 to cover a forecast--but it hopes temporary--shortfall in indigenous gas supply. PetroSA plans to charter...

Belgian LNG 'exports'.
August 6, 2008... Belgium's Zeebrugge terminal said last week that it is now offering LNG loading services. LNG ships can now be both unloaded and loaded, said the terminal's owner-operator, Fluxys LNG (WGI Jul.23,p4). It added that the new service comes in...

Snohvit's month-long outage.
August 6, 2008... StatoilHydro plans to shut down the Snohvit LNG export venture in northern Norway for 30 days during the fourth quarter of this year, Chief Financial Officer Eldar Saetre said on August 1. Saetre said the plant required further maintenance...

Market insight: US price slippage.(INSIGHT)
August 6, 2008... US Nymex August natural gas futures fell by nearly 32% compared with the beginning of July, and then oscillated near the end of the month, making for a rather active bid week. However, despite the recent pullback in prices, some indicators...

Euro utilities set to vie for share in Italian power market.(CURRENT)
August 6, 2008... Italy's power market, long famous for high prices and weak competition, is poised for an influx of both new players, including most notably Germany's E.On, and new wind power projects that could alter the dynamics of the heavily fossil-fuel...

Gas and power prices for major US and European hubs.(CURRENT)
August 6, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] US prices are the weighted average of assessments by Natural Gas Week for five trading days, spanning Jul. 29-4. European gas prices are WGI assessments on Aug. 4 for day-ahead delivery Aug. 5. European power prices...

US legacy gas plays, like San Juan, have future too.(HORIZON)
August 6, 2008... Shale and other "unconventional" gas plays have moved into the limelight as the leading source of this year's unexpectedly large jump in US gas production (WGI Jul.23,p8). Less glamorous, perhaps, but equally important to the decades-long...

Tepco losing cheap LNG.
August 13, 2008... Embattled Tokyo Electric Power Co. (Tepco), already facing heavy operating losses from having to buy oil and short-term LNG to compensate for prolonged nuclear outages, is being deprived of incremental term volumes from two of its cheapest and...

Egypt gas squeeze hits Segas LNG plant.
August 13, 2008... The feedgas supply situation to the Spanish-Egyptian Gas (Segas) venture's 5 million ton per year LNG export train at Damietta is getting worse, not better, while a decision on a second LNG Segas train may be delayed by a year, an industry...

Gains prove slow on Alaska gas fronts.
August 13, 2008... The race to deliver Alaska's stranded gas to energy-hungry markets in the continental US, and perhaps beyond as LNG, moved a step closer to the finish line this month with the award of an exclusive state license to TransCanada to build a...

Shockwaves spread from Georgia conflict.
August 13, 2008... The conflict between Russia and Georgia that erupted late last week over the breakaway Georgian province of South Ossetia has severely undermined the Caucasus republic's reputation as a reliable transit route for oil and gas exports out of the...

Threat of LNG spills on Q-Max analyzed.
August 13, 2008... Sandia National Laboratories has just released a study done at the request of the US Department of Energy (DOE) that analyzes the potential impact of spills over deepwater from large LNG carriers, such as the 265,000 cubic meter Q-Max and...

Artumas' East African stranded gas play.
August 13, 2008... It's a brave investor that takes on both the upstream and downstream risks of a project, but it can be the only way to monetize stranded gas in a frontier region. Artumas has done just that in Tanzania, producing gas at Mnazi Bay since 2007 and...

Freeport to store, re-export LNG.
August 13, 2008... The Freeport LNG terminal on the US Gulf Coast filed an application this month with the US Department of Energy (DOE) to export up to 24 billion cubic feet of gas in the form of LNG on a short-term or spot market basis over a two-year period,...

Market insight: Asian LNG raging bulls.(INSIGHT)(Industry overview)
August 13, 2008... The bulls charging in Asia's LNG spot market show few signs of fatigue, to the chagrin of some buyers who argue that a price correction should be imminent in response to India's new domestic gas supply and prices for naphtha, a leading...

Gas wins out over coal for UK power generation in 2007.(CURRENT)
August 13, 2008... Amid suggestions that recently high--if now somewhat lower--UK gas futures prices for the winter months could make gas uncompetitive with coal in that country, the UK government has released the Digest of UK Energy Statistics (Dukes) 2008...

Gas and power prices for major US and European hubs.(CURRENT)
August 13, 2008... US prices are the weighted average of assessments by Natural Gas Weekfor five trading days, spanning Aug. 5-11. European gas prices are WGI assessments on Aug. 11 for day-ahead delivery Aug. 12. European power prices are from exchanges on Aug....

Petrobras boss outlines LNG, deepwater pipeline options.(HORIZON)
August 13, 2008... Not only has Brazil recently debuted as an LNG importer--with a third receiving terminal possible--it is also in the initial stages of developing what could turn into one of the world's most extensive and deepest subsea domestic gas...

Nabucco undaunted.
August 20, 2008... The six-company Nabucco consortium says a market survey has indicated "huge demand" for the pipeline it plans to start operating in 2013 across Turkey and via the Balkans to Austria, and Managing Director Reinhard Mitschek insists he is...

Sakhalin-1 exports to China back in sight.
August 20, 2008... The fate of future gas output from the Exxon Mobil-operated Sakhalin-1 project on Russia's Pacific shelf remains at the center of a fierce battle, with Exxon scoring some important points recently as China apparently moves back up into pole...

Gloomy outlook for investment in Bolivia.
August 20, 2008... With Bolivia's political climate poised to deteriorate further, the private investment needed to jump-start the country's gas industry isn't likely to materialize soon. So socialist President Evo Morales has decided to bring his political...

Politics overshadow Iran-Pakistan-India pipe.
August 20, 2008... In an apparent effort to keep negotiations on the Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) pipeline going without firmly committing itself to anything, Iran has informally communicated partial agreement to some of the demands India made this spring (WGI...

Gas promises big savings for Cameroon.
August 20, 2008... Domestic use of natural gas has proved elusive in much of West Africa, where Nigeria ranks among the world's top flarers, torching a whopping 15 billion cubic meters per year (1.45 billion cubic feet per day) of gas, or roughly half of current...

Rising German sales.
August 20, 2008... German energy groups E.On and RWE boosted gas sales in the first half, thanks to this year's cooler first quarter, but margins were thinner as import prices climbed. E.On group gas sales increased by 4% year-on-year to 61.2 billion cubic...

Trinidad reserves drift.
August 20, 2008... Despite a recent audit of Trinidad and Tobago's gas reserves that shows a 270 billion cubic foot decline in proved, probable and possible (3P) reserves in 2007, recent exploration successes have left the government optimistic about prospects...

FLNG for Thailand.
August 20, 2008... The memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed by Thailand's PTT Exploration and Production (PTTEP) last week with Golar LNG for joint development of floating production and liquefaction (FLNG) projects represents more than a strategic push by...

Prices for feedstock and power station gas [dagger].
August 20, 2008... PRICES FOR FEEDSTOCK AND POWER STATION GAS [dagger] (In Eurocents/kWh) Jul. '08 Apr. '08 Jul. '07 Power Stations Belgium 2.94 2.62 1.92 Britain (DTI average) * 2.03 1.75 2.25 ...

Market insight: Europe's double-digit rises.(INSIGHT)
August 20, 2008... European end-user gas prices continued to rise between April and July due to indexation to rising oil prices during that period, according to WGI's latest quarterly price survey from Energy Advice (see Supplement, p1-2). Further gas price hikes...

US states, Canadian provinces join in efforts to cut CO2.(CURRENT)
August 20, 2008... In the face of political stalemate in both the US and Canada over carbon control policy, provinces and states across both countries are moving ahead with cooperative efforts that could help provide a base for a continent-wide policy if and when...

Gas and power prices for major US and European hubs.(CURRENT)
August 20, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] US prices are the weighted average of assessments by Natural Gas Weekfor five trading days, spanning Aug. 12-18. European gas prices are WGI assessments on Aug. 18 for day-ahead delivery Aug. 19. European power...

Chesapeake's McClendon says US gas glut a fairy tale.(HORIZON)
August 20, 2008... Frequent reports of higher and higher production from US shale gas plays have some analysts predicting an approaching gas glut. The business model of the nation's leading independent producers makes such a surplus a fairy tale, according to...

WGI supplement: European end-user prices (eurocents/kWh).
August 20, 2008... WGI SUPPLEMENT: European End-User Prices (eurocents/kWh) Gas Prices: 100,000 cm/yr 1 Million cm/yr Typical High Low Typical High Low Belgium Jul. '08 3.97 4.17 3.65 ...

Japanese hold tough.
August 27, 2008... Japanese buyers have yet to fold in their struggle to avoid unimpeded oil price indexation--a battle that has so far blocked both renewal of term contracts with many Asian sellers and expansion of its long-term purchase deals with Qatar....

Shell to reassess old Aramco finds.
August 27, 2008... Rumors have been swirling that the Royal Dutch Shell-led South Rub al-Khali (Srak) consortium struck hydrocarbons at its fourth well in the vast southern Saudi Arabian desert. In fact, sources familiar with the venture's strategy say, Shell has...

Norway outage props up UK winter prices.
August 27, 2008... Until last Wednesday, the UK and other Northwest European forward prices that have provided the hedging potential for ongoing LNG floating storage plays had been easing, in line with the month-long decline in oil prices (p8). That ended...

Alaska producers, LNG fans vs TransCanada.
August 27, 2008... Alaska lawmakers may have given TransCanada a green light to pursue a project to deliver up to 4.5 billion cubic feet per day of North Slope gas to the Continental US, but the 1,715 mile pipeline proposed by the Calgary-based pipeline firm...

Uruguay's LNG plans proceed--slowly.
August 27, 2008... No fewer than 19 companies, "some among the most important in the world," have responded to a request issued jointly by Uruguayan and Argentine state companies in April for proposals to help develop LNG imports into Uruguay, either as fuel...

Excelerate sees more Kuwait-like deals.
August 27, 2008... Excelerate President Rob Bryngelson concedes that, when the company bought its business from El Paso in 2003, it didn't envisage getting involved in the kind of seasonal lease arrangement it concluded last week with state Kuwait Petroleum Corp....

Moscow plans for a growing gas future.
August 27, 2008... A three-year economic development plan approved by Moscow last week envisages total investment of a hefty $49 billion (1.588 trillion rubles) in the country's gas sector in 2009-11 under an optimistic scenario and $47.7 billion (1.192 trillion...

Market insight: a bit more LNG.(INSIGHT)
August 27, 2008... The ramp-up of Nigeria LNG (NLNG) Train 6, confirmed to have been under way since April, and the anticipated loading of a first Qatargas 2 cargo as soon as December could provide a modest boost in US LNG intake still lingering below 1 billion...

Teething problems impede Europe's offshore wind expansion.(CURRENT)
August 27, 2008... Europe's biggest electricity generators champion offshore wind projects as the up-and-coming stars of their renewable energy portfolios. So why has less than 1.2 gigawatts of offshore capacity been installed, compared with more than 57 GW...

Gas and power prices for major US and European hubs.(CURRENT)
August 27, 2008... US prices are the weighted average of assessments by Natural Gas Week for five trading days, spanning Aug. 19-25. European gas prices are WGI assessments on Aug. 26 for day-ahead delivery Aug. 27. European power prices are from exchanges on...

Many terminals rushing into LNG storage, re-export play.(HORIZON)
August 27, 2008... Not only has Cheniere joined Freeport LNG in applying for permission to re-export LNG from the US as a means of improving the economics of underutilized North American receiving terminals, but Canadian developers are hoping to get in on the act...