World Gas Intelligence articles from December 2003

World Gas Intelligence archives from December 2003

Tangguh trading lessons.
December 3, 2003... BG Group's confirmed sale of its stake in the BP-led Tangguh LNG project in Indonesia to Japanese trader Mitsui is a reflection of the emergence of a tier of companies aiming to trade LNG on a regional basis, in contrast to the global gas...

Kogas needs less LNG, Japanese seek more.
December 3, 2003... Unexpectedly slack gas demand in South Korea has Korea Gas Corp. (Kogas) rethinking plans to take delivery of as many as 13 of the nearly 30 spot LNG cargoes it is slated to receive over the coming winter, mainly from Qatar and Oman (WGI...

UK LNG terminal rules rattle Exxon, BG.
December 3, 2003... The UK Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and energy regulator Ofgem last week published a framework for how developers of LNG import terminals and cross-border pipes and cables might apply for UK exemptions from the general full...

US medium-term gas outlook troubling.
December 3, 2003... North American gas supply and demand appear balanced in the short-term, thanks to a cooler-than-normal summer in major consuming regions that allowed gas otherwise destined for power generation to go into storage (p6). The outlook for 2008 and...

Danish gas trading hub under study.
December 3, 2003... Scandinavia's well-established power exchange Nord Pool and Danish state gas network operator Dong Transmission last week created a study group, dubbed GasPool2004, to look into setting up a Danish gas trading hub. The group is to report by...

Norsk Hydro pushes for Ormen Lange start.
December 3, 2003... Norsk Hydro is determined to submit its development plan for Norway's 400 billion cubic meter (14 trillion cubic foot) Ormen Lange gas field this week, even though the partners have yet to agree on the size of their respective stakes. "The...

Shell out buying LNG.
December 3, 2003... In an effort to secure supply for the three existing and planned North American LNG receiving terminals where it has capacity, Royal Dutch/Shell signed a sale and purchase agreement with Nigeria LNG for the delivery of 1.4 million tons per year...

Dutch market opening.
December 3, 2003... Small hiccups are likely, but the Netherlands is definitely pushing ahead with opening its gas and electricity markets for residential users by Jul. 1, 2004, the minister of economic affairs says in a report to Parliament. Fearing...

Market insight: extreme US volatility.(Insight)
December 3, 2003... The only thing certain about North American gas trading last month was its uncertainty, and that trait looks to be carrying though into December. When the New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex) December gas contract approached expiry last...

Germany's tough choices on nuclear, coal favor gas.(Current)
December 3, 2003... Like much of the rest of Europe, Germany is still trying to formulate an energy policy that reconciles the seemingly opposing demands of supply security and environmental welfare. While the focus of European Union efforts in recent years has...

New technologies brighten outlook for power, gas storage.(Horizon)
December 3, 2003... Energy planners have long dreamed of creating large-scale electricity and gas storage sites able to provide not only time and perhaps geographic arbitrage opportunities, but also reliable backups in the event of grid outages like the ones this...

GTL's day arrives at last.
December 10, 2003... After eight years of effort, Qatar's natural gas-to-liquids (GTL) business is becoming a reality, possibly providing impetus for slow moving GTL ventures elsewhere to "get real," as well. This also brings Qatar closer to the day when...

India's Reliance offers gas for power swap.
December 10, 2003... India's Reliance Industries has offered a swap of gas for electricity in response to state generator National Thermal Power Corp.'s (NTPC) tender for supply of an initial 3 million tons per year of LNG or just over 4 billion cubic meters per...

Venezuela's Deltana bidding falls flat.
December 10, 2003... Venezuela's drive to help meet increasing US demand for imported gas was dealt a blow last week, when the much-publicized Deltana Platform offshore gas venture failed to attract investors. Of the 12 international companies that had expressed...

Germany's energy up and comer: EWE.
December 10, 2003... Germany's energy markets could soon see a new strategic player emerge, based on the purchase by north German enemy retailer EWE of a significant interest in east German gas business Verbundnetz Gas (VNG), funded by the flotation of EWE stock....

Greek Depa facing big changes in 2004.
December 10, 2003... Greek state gas company Depa expects to make two key investments early next year, at around the same time that a key decision is due on its own future ownership. Depa expects to select a contractor early in 2004 for the planned quadrupling...

Turkish gas release.
December 10, 2003... Botas' gas release program is not likely to be launched via an open tender until early next year, as the state pipeline operator has applied to Turkey's Energy Market Regulatory Authority (Emra) for an extension to an original Nov. 2 deadline...

Ukrainian upset.
December 10, 2003... Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma late last week fired Deputy Prime Minister Vitaly Gayduk, who oversaw oil and gas, immediately after Gayduk stated that Ukraine had abandoned efforts to set up an international consortium to modernize and...

Ormen Lange agreed.
December 10, 2003... Norsk Hydro last week submitted development plans for the multibillion-dollar Ormen Lange gas field to the Norwegian government on schedule, after reaching a last-minute deal on the partners' respective stakes (WGI Dec.4,p4) The plan's 66...

US gas prices in unsupported flight.
December 10, 2003... US gas futures prices began this week on the same meteoric ride that ended last week, nearing the $7 per million Btu mark on Monday before giving back 18 cents by the end of trading Tuesday. The January contract opened Monday at...

Market insight: Asian swaps.(Insight)
December 10, 2003... State Korea Gas Corp. (Kogas) has done a time swap of 12 cargoes with Japanese utilities including Tokyo Electric Power Co. (Tepco), Osaka Gas, and Tohoku Electric, aimed at avoiding an overflow of LNG in South Korean tanks and bringing more...

China's electricity crisis puts coal back in fashion.(Current)
December 10, 2003... With memories of widespread blackouts during the sultry summer months still fresh in their minds, Chinese citizens are bracing for a cold, dark winter, as an electricity shortfall forces the country to adopt draconian energy conservation...

Big impact likely from planned US East Coast LNG terminals.(Horizon)
December 10, 2003... The international oil majors are not limiting their LNG terminal building efforts to the Gulf and West Coasts of North America after all (WGI Jul.30,p2). BP is proposing to build a new receiving facility on the banks of the Delaware River in...

EU shift on joint sales?
December 17, 2003... European Union and national regulators appear to be cutting Algerian state Sonatrach and Russia's Gazprom some slack over competition policy. This more pragmatic approach--perhaps a response to ever increasing European import...

India upbeat on Iran LNG, not on pipeline.
December 17, 2003... While New Delhi continues to snub efforts by Iran to sponsor a pipeline into India via Pakistan, plans to import Iranian LNG look to be progressing. Officials from state Gail (formerly Gas Authority of India Ltd.) are scheduled to visit...

Brazil's power reform alters gas outlook.
December 17, 2003... A new power sector reform bill unveiled by Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva last week sweeps away the spot market and centralizes bidding for long-term electricity contracts within the context of a state-supervised "pool," while...

Exxon revelations on US, UK LNG plans.
December 17, 2003... Exxon Mobil's US LNG plans keep on growing. The supermajor confirms to WGI that 2 billion cubic feet per day (15 million tons of LNG) is the "least" it plans to import from Qatar and others after 2010. Also, the 2 Bcf/d stipulated in the...

New gas user Israel back talking to Egypt.
December 17, 2003... Gas is due to start flowing to an Israel Electric Corp. (IEC) power station on the Mediterranean coast at Ashdod in a few weeks time, marking the belated launch of Israel's extremely bumpy plan to switch the country's fuel of choice for power...

Dolphin, Qatar sign landmark deal.
December 17, 2003... Dolphin Energy Limited (DEL), the Abu Dhabi-led consortium that includes France's Total and US Occidental, has signed a landmark deal with Qatar which virtually assures that its $3.5 billion accord to deliver up to 2 billion cubic feet per day...

Gazprom at Kovykta.
December 17, 2003... The shareholders of Rusia Petroleum, which holds the license to the giant Kovykta gas condensate field in East Siberia, have drafted their first concrete proposal for Gazprom to join the project. The TNK-BP-controlled consortium invited...

Eventual union for Qatari LNG projects.
December 17, 2003... By the end of the decade, Qatar's RasGas should have seven trains churning out some 36.6 million tons per year of LNG. At that point, it could make sense to merge RasGas with sister company Qatargas to create a single giant gas producer, Jerry...

Market insight: GdF's LNG arbitrage.(Insight)
December 17, 2003... State Gaz de France (GdF) this year embarked on large-scale LNG arbitrage trading into the US, mostly with term Algerian cargoes supplied through Med LNG & Gas, a partnership it set up three years ago with Algerian state Sonatrach (WGI...

International coal prices soar in line with oil, gas.(Current)
December 17, 2003... As with oil and North American gas prices, international coal prices are soaring. Besides the upward pull of gas and oil markets, the move in coal reflects a combination of buoyant Chinese demand, high freight rates, and increased consumption...

Gas and power prices for major US and European hubs.(Current)
December 17, 2003... [GRAPHIC OMITTED] US prices are the weighed average of assessments by Natural Gas Week for five trading days, spanning Dec. 9-15. European gas prices are WGI assessments on Dec. 15 for day-ahead delivery Dec. 16. European power prices are...

Cause of US inventory build: weather or demand loss?(Horizon)
December 17, 2003... Did the North American gas market undergo a structural change that led to record storage builds over the 2003 storage injection season, or was it just the luck of having a cool summer? Industry analysts are debating what caused the amazing...

Sempra and Shell team up in Baja.
December 31, 2003... Sempra Energy and Royal Dutch/Shell have consolidated their LNG projects in the Mexican state of Baja California--putting them in the lead among competing suppliers to Northern Mexico and Southern California. The move gives a boost to new...

BG acquires Elba LNG contracts.
December 31, 2003... El Paso ended a year of uncertainty over its LNG business with a swift two-part exit (WGI Nov. 12,p1). First it last week announced the sale of "contractual rights to all its upstream and downstream gas purchase and gas sales contracts" at the...

Petronas in 2nd LNG move beyond Asia.
December 31, 2003... Malaysian state Petronas has signaled its intention of buying 30% equity in a UK LNG import terminal being developed at Milford Haven in southwest Wales, and of contracting for the annual use of 2.2 million metric tons (3 billion cubic meters)...

Canada oil sands try to save on gas.
December 31, 2003... Among the multi-billion-dollar questions floating around the North American gas patch is how much of the methane treasure in Canada's Mackenzie Delta and Alaska's North Slope will ever make it to the US lower-48 states. The proposed gas...

Exxon sells bass gas, holds back on PNG.
December 31, 2003... Exxon Mobil is enjoying better success selling gas produced with BHP Billiton off southeast Australia than carving out a firm market for its as-yet undeveloped Papua New Guinea gas project into Australia's less populated northeast. ...

French swap cleared, EdF restrained.
December 31, 2003... France's energy regulator CRE has approved the asset swap outlined last month by Total and Gaz de France (GdF) (WGI Nov.26,p5). Electricite de France (EdF) however has been dealt a tougher hand. The plan agreed by CRE has four main points:...

New Irish gas, corrib still pending.
December 31, 2003... UK-based Ramco Energy has begun gas production from its Seven Heads development off Cork in southwest Ireland with initial output of around 60 million cubic feet per day (620 million cubic meters per year). The field has reserves of 390 billion...

GN adds to fleet.
December 31, 2003... Spanish Gas Natural's (GN) new LNG tanker Castillo de Villalba dropped off its first LNG cargo to the new Bahia de Bizkaia regasification terminal (BBG) in Bilbao, northern Spain, on Dec. 19. The 138,000 cubic meter tanker was chartered in...

India to cut Gail stake.
December 31, 2003... India has decided to sell 10% equity in Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and Gail (formerly Gas Authority of India Ltd.) to plug a shortfall in revenues. The government expects to earn around $2.7 billion from the sale of stake in both...

Battery project ends.
December 31, 2003... RWE's subsidiary Innogy has withdrawn future funding from its Regenesys electricity storage scheme. No further commissioning work will be undertaken at its two 15 megawatt pilot plants--at Little Barford near Cambridge in the UK and at...

CNPC role in deadly gas blowout.
December 31, 2003... A senior executive at Chinese National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) this week said it would pay some compensation to victims of the devastating Dec. 23 gas well blast at the Chuandongbei field that it operates. near Chongqing in southwest China. which...

Market Insight: US capacity freed up.(Insights)
December 31, 2003... Despite a US government plea at its recent LNG Summit in Washington D.C., it's unlikely in the near term that substantially more spot Atlantic Basin cargoes other than from Trinidad will land at US terminals than did in past winters, according...

India's power liberalization gets underway.(Current)
December 31, 2003... India's beleaguered power sector is starting to get some relief following the passage of new electricity legislation last spring. The government is setting up an exchange for power trading and, for the first time, envisages a role for private...

Older tankers prove profitable in spot LNG trading.(Horizon)
December 31, 2003... Within the next few weeks, US LNG terminal developer Cheniere Energy is expected take possession of the 20-year-old Tenaga Empat under a three-year charter that exemplifies the innovative ways owners of older LNG tankers can benefit from...