World Gas Intelligence articles from February 2003

World Gas Intelligence archives from February 2003

Grown-up US LNG ideas.(new development planning)
February 5, 2003... A few years into the effort, corporate strategies for developing new outlets for LNG in the US are taking more concrete form, judging by remarks from speakers for several major LNG developers on the sidelines of an LNG conference sponsored by...

Insiders all win in E.On's Ruhrgas deal.(E.On friendly takeover of Ruhrgas approved)
February 5, 2003... German power giant E.On has succeeded in its $11 billion (over 10 billion euro) friendly takeover of Ruhrgas, after clinching an out-of-court settlement on Friday with nine opponents that had blocked the deal for six months (WGI Jul. 17,p5)....

Mexico's top energy regulator talks LNG.(Dionisio Perez-Jacome)
February 5, 2003... Dionisio Perez-Jacome, Mexico's chief energy regulator in his capacity as chairman of the Comision Reguladora de Energia (CRE), outlined the obstacles ahead for the regulatory agency and commented on the state of the country's gas and power...

Sakhalin-2, Indonesia compete for sales.(in Japan)
February 5, 2003... The Royal Dutch/Shell-led Sakhalin-2 venture off Russia's Pacific Coast has evidently moved into high gear in its marketing efforts--just as competitor Indonesian state Pertamina is adopting a more active sales stance. Tokyo Gas confirmed...

Gazprom mulls direct sales to Enel, Edison.
February 5, 2003... West European gas market entrants continue to beat a path to Gazprom's door in search of direct supplies--the latest example being Italy's power incumbent Enel and smaller domestic energy competitor Edison. But while such sales might fit nicely...

Dolphin deals.(Dolphin Energy alliance with Mitsui)
February 5, 2003... Dolphin Energy, the group held 51% by the UAE Offsets Group (UOG) with 24.5% partners Total Fina Elf and Occidental, has struck an alliance with Japan's Mitsui as it continues work on the $3.5 billion project to pump up to 2 billion cubic feet...

ENI in Hungary.(Tigaz buys regional gas stakes from Mol)(Brief Article)
February 5, 2003... Hungarian gas distributor Tigaz, controlled by ENI's now wholly owned subsidiary Italgas, has bought majority stakes in four regional gas companies from Hungarian state Mol for $90.9 million. Mol-Gaz, Zsamberkgaz, Gerecsegaz, and...

Revolt at El Paso.(shareholder proxy fight)
February 5, 2003... A group of dissident El Paso shareholders led by Selim Zilkha has confirmed to WGI that it plans a proxy fight to acquire control of El Paso's board and replace much of its senior management. The Zilkha family is El Paso's largest...

Sasol's Qatari GTL.(Technip-Coflexip wins contract)(Brief Article)
February 5, 2003... Last week's award by South Africa's Sasol and Qatar Petroleum (QP) of a $675 million engineering, procurement, and construction contract for their 34,000 barrel per day gas-to-liquids (GTL) plant to France's Technip-Coflexip should lead to...

Egypt's ideas for decoupling gas from oil.(prices)(Brief Article)
February 5, 2003... As promised last year, Egyptian Petroleum Minister Sameh Fahmy presented ideas on decoupling gas prices from oil and oil products to the third ministerial meeting of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) Qatar's capital of Doha this week....

Market insight: worrying US outlook. (Insight).
February 5, 2003... US gas markets have been inundated with bullish news of late, including further confirmation of production declines, weakening Pacific Northwest hydroelectric conditions, and sliding amounts of working gas in storage. Residential and commercial...

Singapore out to create Asia's most liberal power market. (Current).
February 5, 2003... Undeterred by second thoughts afflicting electricity deregulation efforts around the Atlantic Basin, Singapore is aiming to establish Asia's first fully liberalized power market by 2004 (WGI Jan.22,p7). To that end, a new wading structure was...

Coalbed methane outlook bright in US, brightening elsewhere. (Horizon).
February 5, 2003... Coalbed methane--natural gas held in coal seams--has enraged over the last decade as a rare area of growth in US gas standing out against a backdrop of declining domestic supplies (p6). First seen on a meaningful scale in the San Juan Basin of...

Competition for Kogas.(South Korean companies move to import LNG)(Brief Article)
February 12, 2003... State Korea Gas Corp.'s (Kogas) ongoing spot LNG buying spree has highlighted the pitfalls of the South Korean monopoly supplier's failure to firm up additional long-term supplies due to its uncertain privatization prospects. And it now looks...

New would-be LNG players in Iran.
February 12, 2003... BG and Italy's Enel have apparently leapt to the front of Iran's queue of prospective downstream LNG developers, and Royal Dutch/Shell is tipped to win two South Pars development phases that could provide feedstock for LNG and for a...

Ormen Lange pipe deal not done yet.
February 12, 2003... Norsk Hydro announced last week that it had secured approval from its partners in the giant Ormen Lange gas field off mid-Norway to build an entirely new 1,200 kilometer, 21.9 billion cubic meter per year (2.12 billion cubic foot per day) pipe...

Mixed reviews for Egypt's pricing plan.
February 12, 2003... Egyptian Oil Minister Salem Fahmy provided much of the pizzazz at last week's annual meeting of the Gas Exporting Countries' Forum in Qatar with a new proposal to transform gas pricing in Europe by de-linking it from crude oil. Fahmy, who...

Gas unappealing to Brazil's new leader.
February 12, 2003... With left-of-center Luiz Inacio "Lula" da Silva now wearing Brazil's presidential sash, the country's already ailing scheme to cut reliance on hydropower by building a massive array of gas-fired power plants will most likely die, leaving the...

El Paso LNG fire sale.(Brief Article)
February 12, 2003... El Paso's deteriorating financial situation demanded drastic action, so Chairman and Chief Executive William Wise fell on his sword this week, announcing his "retirement." News of Wise's impending departure came after a week of turmoil...

EU, Algeria talk tough.(Negotiations over long-tern gas contracts)
February 12, 2003... Weekend talks between Algerian energy officials and Loyola de Palacio, vice president of the European Commission in charge of energy and transport, appear to have yielded little progress on the impasse over the inclusion of destination or...

Qatargas spot sales.(Brief Article)
February 12, 2003... Qatargas has diverted two cargoes of LNG from a contract to supply Spain's Gas Natural to Japan's Chubu Electric, sources say, in contrast to information obtained earlier by WGI that Qatargas had diverted seven Gas Natural cargoes to Korea Gas...

US LNG imports barely rise in 2002.
February 12, 2003... All signs point to boom times for LNG in the US. The Elba Island receiving terminal is back up and running, bringing available send-out capacity at the country's three active import terminals to about 1.4 billion cubic feet per day, equivalent...

Market insight: Japan warms to change.(Japanese LNG buyers are pushing to change the formula that Indonesian state Pertamina has used to price its exports for over a quarter-century)(Brief Article)
February 12, 2003... Japanese LNG buyers are pushing to change the formula that Indonesian state Pertamina has used to price its exports for over a quarter-century, suggesting that the recent surge in Japanese and South Korean spot purchasing has not seriously...

Texas sticking with deregulation model--others hesitate. (Current).
February 12, 2003... Many US states--including much of New England--are reconsidering the merits of power deregulation in the harsh light of California's experience. But not Texas. After a year of retail electricity deregulation, Texas is still proud to point out...

Atlantic basin edged out in competition for new tankers. (Horizon).(Brief Article)
February 12, 2003... The timing could hardly have been worse from the perspective of Norwegian independent shipowner Golar. A fire on board the Methane Princess--the first of four new LNG tankers Golar ordered for delivery this year and next--has delayed delivery...

Saudi initiative near death.(integrated gas projects on hold)
February 19, 2003... It may be something of a stretch to say that the three-year-long negotiations by Exxon Mobil and Royal Dutch/Shell-led consortia for $20 billion-plus in integrated gas projects in Saudi Arabia are dead as a doornail--but not much. Two...

Contest for gas sales to Malaysia.
February 19, 2003... UK independent Premier Oil is within a few months of striking a deal to sell 100 million cubic feet per day of gas to Malaysian state Petronas from reserves in West Natuna Block A, sources close to the deal tell WGI. The contract will likely be...

Enel to share BG's Italian LNG terminal.
February 19, 2003... BG Group's plan to build an LNG import terminal at Brinidisi in southeast Italy looks even more firmly set to proceed following announcement that Italian power giant Enel is to take a 50% stake in the project, and possibly buy into some of BG's...

Legal, political issues cloud Mexico project.
February 19, 2003... On the eve of the scheduled launch of the bidding process for eight "multiple services contracts" aimed at doubling Mexico's non-associated gas production in the Burgos Basin to 2 billion cubic feet per day by 2006, state Pemex continues to...

Poland scales back its gas ambitions.(imports will not have to grow as fast as previously projected)
February 19, 2003... Poland last week concluded a deal to reduce by one-third its gas purchases from Russia under a 25-year take-or-pay contract signed in 1996. This cutback follows delays in Scandinavian supply projects to Poland--all reflecting previous...

Growing Irish output.(natural gas in Ireland)
February 19, 2003... While many of its European Union partners are set to become more dependent on imported gas over the next decade, Ireland can look forward to rising indigenous production that should make it virtually self-sufficient (WGI Jan.1,p6). After...

Hungary's Mol losing.(Mol expects losses in its natural gas operations in 2003)(Brief Article)
February 19, 2003... Hungarian oil and gas company Mol has warned that its price-capped gas business will plunge back into heavy losses this year, losing as much as $90 million in the first quarter alone. A strong local currency that helped the business almost...

New England faces East Canada setback.(natural gas prices rise)
February 19, 2003... Prospects for relief in the New England region of the US from a supply squeeze that pushed Boston City Gate prices over $12 per million Btu last week receded with word from independent producer EnCana that its Deep Panuke project off Eastern...

Market insight: Europe's end-user rises.(natural gas prices)
February 19, 2003... Last year, end-user gas prices in continental Europe tended to move in line with oil markets. But so far this year, such links have weakened. German prices would only have risen by 3% in January on the basis of linkage to world oil prices....

Breakthrough in adoption of Russian power reform. (Current).
February 19, 2003... The reform process needed to reshape Russia's electricity sector--which has been stalled for months by legislative wrangling--has finally gotten a tentative go-ahead from the lower house of Russia's parliament, the state Duma. Last Friday, it...

Spain building more gas import capacity than it needs. (Horizon).
February 19, 2003... Comparing planned new LNG and gas pipeline import capacity to even relatively bullish forecasts for demand yields the inexorable conclusion that Spain is over-preparing for anticipated growth in gas demand this decade--perhaps not to the extent...

WGI supplement: European end-user prices.(World Gas Intelligence)(Illustration)
February 19, 2003... WGI SUPPLEMENT: European End-User Prices (In Eurocents/kWh) Gas Prices: 100,000 cm/yr 1 Million cm/yr Typical High Low Typical High Low Belgium Jan. '03...

No US relief in sight.(North American gas markets, market overview)
February 26, 2003... It is no longer hyperbole to talk of crisis in North American gas markets. Recent record-shattering activity has left high prices all but a certainty through at least next autumn. Gas buyers early last week were paying desperation prices as...

Iraqi officials add LNG to gas plans.(liquified natural gas plans, Iraq)
February 26, 2003... Having failed to firm up a memorandum of understanding signed in 1996 to sell pipeline gas to Turkey, Iraqi energy officials are now redrafting ambitious plans to compete for a share of the international market, including building an LNG...

Italian stock build.(Snam Rete Gas, gas throughput figures)(Brief Article)
February 26, 2003... Italian national gas network and LNG terminal operator Snam Rete Gas reported 2002 throughput of 74.4 billion cubic meters (7.2 billion cubic feet per day), up by 4 Bcm or 5.7% from 2001. Its throughput equates to Italy's consumption net of...

LNG buying activity picks up in Asia.(liquefied natural gas)
February 26, 2003... After a lull in the wake of last autumn's award of gas purchase contracts by China to Australia and Indonesia, LNG procurement activities are again picking up momentum--this time in other parts of Asia (WGI Sep.25,p2). New buyers such as...

Venezuela, Trinidad LNG plans stalled.(liquefied natural gas, possible merger of reserves)
February 26, 2003... Straight answers are hard to come by these days on the status of the two LNG export ventures best positioned to serve the increasingly supply-starved US market: Trinidad's Atlantic LNG and Venezuela's Deltana project. Negotiations to develop...

Strategies to deal with US gas decline.(decline in North American gas supplies)
February 26, 2003... Contrary to appearances, not all US utilities and energy merchants are in dire straights. And, indeed, for those with balance sheets still in order, opportunities abound for picking up cheap some of the assets being shed in tire-sale fashion by...

Dominican LNG up.(liquefied natural gas supplies for Dominican Republic; AES Corp. terminal)(Brief Article)
February 26, 2003... US spot LNG importers were foiled once again by holders of long-term LNG supply agreements in the Atlantic Basin last week, when AES' Dominican Republic terminal took in its first cargo. Shipping sources say that a BP-chartered vessel delivered...

Turkey, Greece deal.(gas pipeline deal)(Brief Article)
February 26, 2003... Turkey and Greece this week signed a binding agreement to build a 285 kilometer gas pipeline connecting the Turkish city of Karacabey near Bursa to Komotini in northern Greece, following up on a memorandum of understanding agreed to last March...

Cosmo oil tries gas.(Cosmo Oil, plans to move into liquified natural gas sector)(Brief Article)
February 26, 2003... Japan's smallest oil refiner, Cosmo Oil, has laid out plans to move into LNG and power generation in a new medium-term business plan. In a further sign of blurring distinctions within the once strictly segmented Japanese energy industry, Cosmo...

Petroplus' LNG win.(Dutch refiner and logistics firm, liquified natural gas terminal; United Kingdom)(Brief Article)
February 26, 2003... Dutch refiner and logistics firm Petroplus has secured planning permission to build a new LNG import terminal in the UK, at Milford Haven in southwest Wales. Final approval is expected in June and depends on Transco, Britain's onshore gas...

Market insight: Gazprom at the channel.(Russian company, natural gas shipments through Interconnector UK pipeline)
February 26, 2003... Gazprom's stated intention to bolster UK gas trading as that country becomes more import-dependent is starting to take concrete expression: Gazprom UK Trading, a London-based wholly owned affiliate of the Russian giant, has signed up as client...

Spain building fewer power plants--but still too many? (Current).(electricity capacity, usage)
February 26, 2003... The hard edge has come off earlier worries that Spain's dash for gas-fired power risked flipping a tight national electricity supply balance into profit-sapping overcapacity (WGI Feb.19,p8). The reasons are an unlikely combination of economic...

Green-tinged policy review hints at huge UK gas imports Horizon.(United Kingdom, national energy policy white paper)
February 26, 2003... In the UK government `white paper' on national energy policy for the next 50 years that finally emerged this week, concern for the environment has pushed to the sidelines many of the issues related to growing dependence on imported oil and gas...