World Gas Intelligence articles from December 2004

World Gas Intelligence archives from December 2004

India directs LNG expansion.
December 1, 2004... In a marked departure from past practice, India's new Congress-led coalition government is playing a much more proactive role in directing investment by state oil companies in the country's LNG terminals (WGI Aug.11,p4). Plans by state oil...

UK 'big four' face gas price probe.
December 1, 2004... Energy regulator Ofgem has asked the UK's four largest offshore gas suppliers to provide it with contractual information relating to two southern UK North Sea fields, to assist its probe into high wholesale gas prices during October/November...

Dutch open up Wadden Sea.
December 1, 2004... The Netherlands plans to allow gas production and further exploration activities under "strict conditions" in the environmentally sensitive Wadden Sea, paving the way for first gas output there in 2007. It follows a parliamentary debate over a...

Lukoil starts work under Uzbek PSA.
December 1, 2004... Russia's Lukoil last week has signed a final accord to launch a production sharing agreement (PSA) with Uzbekistan to develop natural gas deposits in the south of the country. Lukoil signed the PSA to develop the Kandym, Khausak and Shady gas...

Gazprom's 2005 aims.
December 1, 2004... Gazprom says it plans to increase gas exports outside the CIS by 3.57% in 2005 to 145 billion cubic meters, from a forecast 140 Bcm for 2004. According to Russia's 2005 gas balance, recently approved by Gazprom chief Alexei Miller, the gas...

Yemen LNG afloat?
December 1, 2004... The noise around Yemen LNG is getting louder every day. Last month, the once-moribund project headed by French Total was short-listed, with four others, for a long-term supply contract to state Korea Gas Corp. (WGI Oct. 13,p5). Even though...

Jamaica and Trinidad ink LNG deal.
December 1, 2004... After a long period of negotiations, Jamaica has finally signed an agreement to buy 1.1 million tons per year of LNG (1.5 billion cubic meters of gas) from Trinidad starting in 2008. The LNG will be exported from a plant "that is yet to be...

India to let prices rise.
December 1, 2004... India's government is expected to increase gas prices for industrial and commercial (I&C) users to near-market levels of up to $3.20 per million Btu, nearly 75% more than the subsidized price of roughly $1.80/MMBtu they pay today. It's the...

UK prices firm on Brae outage.
December 1, 2004... Gas leaks at two North Sea complexes required safety-related shutdowns this weekend, causing UK prices to rise again. Marathon's Brae oil and gas complex offshore the UK was shut after a gas leak was discovered at Brae Alpha platform on...

Abu Dhabi awards big contract.
December 1, 2004... Abu Dhabi Gas Industries Co. (Gasco)--a unit of state Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. (Adnoc) responsible for processing associated gas--has launched the third major phase of its Habshan onshore gas development (OGD-3) by awarding a $1.46 billion...

Market insight: spot LNG eyes signals.(Insight)
December 1, 2004... Mixed signals from US natural gas prices and a lull in Far East demand made for a relatively quiet LNG spot market during November. "People won't pay large premiums for an LNG cargo," one trader said, noting that the current market afforded...

EU widens ambitions as Europe's power grids reunite.(Current)
December 1, 2004... The goal of a single pan-European electricity market was boosted in early November by the reintegration of southeast Europe's power grid, with that of the European Union which expanded politically on May 1 (WGI Sep.24'03,p7). Brussels has...

Gas projects provide catalyst for carbon sequestration.(Horizon)
December 1, 2004... BP Chief Executive John Browne recently named developing "the potential for the capture and storage of carbon" in depleted gas fields or reservoirs--a process known as carbon sequestration--as one of several practical steps that business can...

Egypt's Segas LNG startup.
December 8, 2004... The LNG world is preparing to welcome a new exporter to its ranks. The Spanish-Egyptian Gas LNG (Segas) venture started producing LNG last week and is on track to load the first export cargo from Egypt around Dec. 10, industry sources tell WGI....

Peru's Camisea eyes oil-linked LNG pricing.
December 8, 2004... In 2005 Carlos del Solar plans to accumulate lots of frequent-flyer miles. Just back from Chile, where he met with the head of state oil company Enap and officials from the ministries of economy and energy, the chief executive of Hunt Oil...

Trinidad to host LNG exporters forum.
December 8, 2004... Trinidad and Tobago continues its campaign for a bigger role in development of its LNG industry and a higher profile on the international LNG scene. Officials with the country's National Energy Corp. told WGI at CWC's Annual LNG Summit in...

Gazprom, BP said near deal on Kovykta.
December 8, 2004... An accord between TNK-BP and Gazprom on the Kovykta project in East Siberia may be concluded by the end of this year, to be followed next year by a trilateral global cooperation agreement between Gazprom, TNK-BP and BP itself covering a broad...

Shifting positions in Iranian LNG race.
December 8, 2004... French Total and Malaysian state Petronas are the latest runners to pass a goal post in the long race among private Western and Asian state companies to develop an LNG export project in Iran, concluding what Seyed Mehdi Husseini, senior vice...

UK's Dragon LNG comes to life.
December 8, 2004... The UK's BG Group, Malaysian state Petronas and Dutch refiner Petroplus last week announced agreements confirming their commitment to develop the 250 million [pounds sterling] ($480 million) Phase 1 of their Dragon LNG import terminal at...

Greece, Turkey set to build pipeline.
December 8, 2004... Turkey and Greece are both moving ahead with construction contracts for their planned 285 kilometer gas pipeline, through which Greece's state-controlled Depa has agreed to import 750 million cubic meters per year (72.5 million cubic feet per...

EG LNG progressing.
December 8, 2004... Marathon and Equatorial Guinea's state GEPetrol will by end-year have completed 15% of the construction work at their 3.4 million ton per year liquefaction plant in Equatorial Guinea, Marathon President and Chief Executive Clarence Cazalot told...

Market insight: US soars, by mistake.(Insight)
December 8, 2004... US gas users are seething at the way in which December bid-week trading played out, with baseload prices for the month heavily influenced--and inflated--by what the industry now knows to have been bogus storage data. The Energy Information...

Dominican Republic shakes up gas-starved power sector.(Current)
December 8, 2004... Days after the International Monetary Fund (IMF) announced a crucial agreement with the government of the Dominican Republic that eases the way for disbursement of a multi-million dollar development loan, the government is launching a massive...

Arab Gas pipeline progressing through Jordan, Syria next.(Horizon)
December 8, 2004... LNG isn't Egypt's only gas success story (pl). A gas pipeline connecting the Jordanian Red Sea port of Aqaba and the Rihab power station in northern Jordan is 28% complete, and Egyptian gas is expected to start flowing through the line by...

Algeria eyes GTL.
December 15, 2004... Algeria is dangling an integrated gas-to-liquids (GTL) project as the next big offering to international oil and gas companies after the recent award of its first integrated LNG scheme to Spain's Repsol YPF and Gas Natural (p2). The head of...

Petronet LNG facing newly tough sellers.
December 15, 2004... Indian state importing consortium Petronet LNG is negotiating with suppliers from Iran, Australia and Yemen to obtain LNG for additional planned import capacity at Dahej and at Kochi, rather than staying with initial supplier RasGas of Qatar...

Shell puts more LNG eggs in Libya basket.
December 15, 2004... Royal Dutch/Shell is "interested in anything that has gas in it" in Libya, sources in Libya say, including the country's largest non-associated gas field, Attahady, which contains an estimated 10 trillion cubic feet of reserves. Shell is...

Pipe problems leave Spain short of gas.
December 15, 2004... High Spanish electricity demand, an outage at the Asco nuclear plant in northeast Spain, and gas pipeline problems in Algeria combined early Monday to force Spain's national gas network operator Enagas to introduce managed gas supply...

Disarray, opportunity after Portugal veto.
December 15, 2004... The European Commission's Dec. 9 formal veto of a proposed takeover of Gas de Portugal (GdP) by a 51%-49% joint venture of Energias de Portugal (EdP) and Italy's Eni puts Portugal's domestic energy industry into considerable disarray, but may...

Hot LNG causes problems down line.
December 15, 2004... New challenges continue to emerge for LNG terminal operators and gas marketers trying to deal with the highly variable quality of LNG that is or could soon be entering a North American gas market accustomed to having gas processed to fairly...

Indonesia's home front.
December 15, 2004... In signing a number of natural gas supply contracts for local power plants on Sunday, Indonesian officials are reinforcing a strategic shift toward greater domestic use of gas in preference to high priced oil, as part of an ongoing adjustment...

New Florida combo.
December 15, 2004... Realizing that the market will not support all the Bahamas LNG receiving terminals and associated pipelines to Florida that have been proposed, units of FPL Group Resources, Tractebel North America and El Paso are joining forces to promote a...

Putin's Turkey visit.
December 15, 2004... During a previously delayed visit by Russian President Vladimir Putin to Turkey last week, Russia's Gazprom and Turkish state pipeline operator Botas signed a memorandum on cooperation in gas development that should help resolve a dispute over...

Market insight: uneven Indonesian cuts.(Insight)
December 15, 2004... In further evidence that the squeaky wheel gets the grease, Korea Gas Corp. (Kogas) looks set to emerge unscathed after refusing to accept cuts in LNG exports for 2005 initially proposed by Indonesian regulator BP Migas in response to output...

Gas frozen out of US baseload power--perhaps permanently.(Current)
December 15, 2004... Natural gas as a generation fuel has lost its competitive edge against coal and nuclear fuel in the US, poking holes in the 1990s theory that gas would significantly reduce or replace coal's and nuclear's shares of the power generation market....

Merger gives ConocoPhillips skill sets needed in global gas.(Horizon)
December 15, 2004... The 2002 merger of Conoco and Phillips Petroleum to form ConocoPhillips created more than the critical mass needed to compete in a global gas market, says S.L. "Sig" Cornelius, president of ConocoPhillips Global Gas. The deal also provided the...

Russia's tangled web.
December 22, 2004... Sunday's forced sale of Russian Yukos' main producing subsidiary, Yuganskneftegas (or Yugansk), has become mired into deeper controversy, after the mysterious Baikal Finance Group walked away with the prize, offering $9.35 billion. Gazprom's...

Germany's big four face rap.
December 22, 2004... Germany's Cartel Office said Tuesday it will conclude proceedings against 16 gas suppliers--including E.On Ruhrgas, RWE, Wingas and Verbundnetz Gas (VNG) --for alleged abuse of market dominant positions in 2005. In a statement, it expressed the...

QP, Exxon finalize UK supply venture.
December 22, 2004... With $7.6 billion in international financing in place, Qatar Petroleum (QP) and Exxon Mobil last week announced they are committing to their $12 billion Qatargas-2 project to supply LNG from Qatar to the UK by the winter of 2007-08. ...

Australia finalizes China deals.
December 22, 2004... Australia's North West Shelf (NW Shelf) partnership has finalized a new structure for a new LNG joint venture with China National Offshore Oil Corp. (CNOOC) that will allow CNOOC to participate in Australia's NW Shelf, as part of a major...

Iran-India pipe prospects.
December 22, 2004... Prospects for Iranian gas exports to India through a pipeline transiting neighboring Pakistan are being talked up, by not only Australia's BHP Billiton but also Russian giant Gazprom. Yet Iran now wants a higher price for its gas, while...

Unconventional now the norm in US.
December 22, 2004... Not long ago, the natural gas industry viewed geological plays such as tight sands gas, coalbed methane (CBM) and gas shales as unconventional sources of future supply. Yet these have turned conventional in the space of two decades, and results...

Faith in old UK fields.
December 22, 2004... Tullow Oil and Germany's Wingas are both paying cash for old UK fields. While the former is intent on proving up fresh gas reserves, the latter wants to develop a storage facility. UK independent Tullow is to pay an aggregate 200 million...

Iraq to resume gas sales to Kuwait.
December 22, 2004... The first postwar exports of Iraqi gas to Kuwait should begin late next year, according to a memorandum of understanding signed last week. The deal, yet to be approved by the two governments, envisages imports of 35 million cubic feet per day...

TNK-BP looks for gas growth too.
December 22, 2004... Russian oil giant TNK-BP is looking beyond oil for growth by expanding its natural gas operations, Chief Operating Officer Larry McVay told WGI on the sidelines of the recent Deloitte 2004 Oil & Gas Conference in Houston. TNK-BP has...

Sabine pass advances.
December 22, 2004... ChevronTexaco last week finalized a 20year agreement with Cheniere Energy for 700 million cubic feet per day (7.25 billion cubic meters per year) of reserved regasification capacity at Cheniere's Sabine Pass LNG import terminal, in Cameron...

Exxon, Syntroleum in GTL license deal.
December 22, 2004... Exxon Mobil and Syntroleum, the Tulsa-based gas-to-liquids (GTL) technology developer, have reached an agreement that grants Syntroleum a worldwide license to Exxon's GTL patents to produce and sell high-quality fuels from gas or other...

Market insight: Spanish shortage eases.(Insight)
December 22, 2004... Algerian gas supplies to Spain via the Maghreb-Europe pipeline were still being reduced by an outage on that pipe's SC3 compressor station, but Spanish gas network operator Enagas has allowed four large plants to resume gas firing. Its...

Wind power becomes mainstream in Europe.(Current)
December 22, 2004... Wind power is moving from the sidelines to the mainstream of electricity supply, particularly in Europe where energy policy is focused on boosting supply from renewable resources. In the US, too, despite some faltering, wind power also looks...

Iran to start LNG exports by 2009, from first of three plants.(Horizon)
December 22, 2004... Iran's decade-long plan to develop gas fields in the Assaluyeh region for LNG exports is slowly turning into a reality with first cargoes expected in 2009 to either China or India, senior Iranian officials told WGI. The first LNG project...