World Gas Intelligence articles from February 2005

World Gas Intelligence archives from February 2005

Gazprom's Iran strategy.
February 2, 2005... The first outlines are appearing of a grand strategy by Russia's Gazprom to push Iran's entry into international markets into pathways that favor cooperation rather than competition between the world's top two gas reserve holders. ...

Missing link in LNG strategy at Tractebel.
February 2, 2005... Several pieces of Tractebel's global LNG strategy are starting to fall into place, but other parts--most notably supply--remain fuzzy. Tractebel last week signed a non-binding heads of agreement to buy up to 500 million cubic feet per day...

No quick end to standoff in India.
February 2, 2005... A high-level ministerial committee has yet again postponed a decision to lift price controls on India's domestically produced gas and create a regulatory framework for the country's gas sector. As with recent government reversals of oil product...

Poland eyes LNG or CNG imports.
February 2, 2005... Polish state oil and gas group PGNiG hopes to decide by end-2005 on a project to build a gas import terminal, but is analyzing whether it should be for LNG or compressed natural gas (CNG), and where on the coast it should be built. A...

CNOOC progress on three terminal fronts.
February 2, 2005... China National Offshore Oil Corp.'s (CNOOC) ambitious plan to build eight LNG terminals along China's East Coast has already progressed this year on three fronts: Fujian, Zhejiang and Shanghai. If all eight projects move ahead, CNOOC would have...

Holding your nerve in UK price spikes.
February 2, 2005... Recent hearings held by the UK Parliamentary Select Committee on Trade and Industry to explore last autumn's sharp UK wholesale gas price spike appeared to shine more light on strategies for avoiding the pass-through of such increases to...

Alaska pipe timetable.
February 2, 2005... The Alaska state legislature should have a consolidated proposal by May for a gas pipeline to deliver the 35 trillion cubic feet of reserves now stranded on the North Slope to North American markets, says a key aid to Gov. Frank Murkowski (WGI...

NW shelf outage.
February 2, 2005... Australia's Woodside, operator of the North West Shelf LNG operations, is planning to shut down the main cryogenic heat exchanger for the project's new Train 4 this week for at least 20 days for "remedial work." Woodside says that cargo...

Spain slashing energy demand records.
February 2, 2005... Cold weather in Spain saw records broken for electricity and daily gas demand on three consecutive days last week, and on five occasions during January as a whole--with resulting high power prices and heavy draw on globally available spot LNG...

Market insight: Spanish LNG grab.(Insight)
February 2, 2005... Spain continues to attract spot LNG cargoes like the proverbial honey pot. Four Malaysian cargoes have now discharged in Spain since mid-December, and a fifth is thought to be on the way. Industry watchers suspect that most of these are...

US electricity demand setting new records--in winter.(Current)
February 2, 2005... Electricity demand is surging in the US, as frigid weather reinforces the effects of economic recovery, population growth and expanding use of electronic devises (WGI Jul.28,'04,p7). As a result, several generators have this winter joined the...

US Congress poised to reform regulations affecting LNG.(Horizon)
February 2, 2005... After solid Republican gains in the 2004 elections, prospects are the brightest they've been in years for the US Congress to pass a national energy bill in 2005. If so, the US gas industry may finally see regulatory relief from the effects of a...

European exchange debut.
February 9, 2005... Amsterdam-based APX Group last week launched continental Europe's first gas exchanges, for the Belgian Zeebrugge and Dutch TTF hubs, developed in association with Belgian gas grid Fluxys and Dutch counterpart Gas Transport Services (GTS). ...

Tractebel inks Yemen LNG anchor deal.
February 9, 2005... The Total-led Yemen LNG venture has signed a Heads of Agreement with Tractebel for 2.5 million tons per year of LNG, Total spokesman Paul Floren confirmed this week. A final sales and purchase agreement will follow once the Yemen government...

US LNG terminals unfazed by price spike.
February 9, 2005... Industrial users and consumers in the US Northeast looking to LNG imports for relief from periodic weather-related gas price spikes resulting from inadequate pipeline and other infrastructure to bring up domestic gas from the Gulf Coast may be...

New Ukraine leaders ignor gas--for now.
February 9, 2005... Ukraine's "Orange Revolution," which last month brought to power a new pro-Western government, seems destined to leave the country's vital energy relations with Russia's Gazprom substantially unchanged for the near term--although the longer...

New Pakistani threat to Iran-India pipe.
February 9, 2005... A series of explosions that have rocked Pakistan over the past two months threaten to put yet another obstacle in the path to a proposed Iran-to-India gas pipeline running overland through Pakistan. Iranian officials plan to meet with...

Bolivia's popularity with neighbors drops.
February 9, 2005... After domestic political squabbles cost it potential sales to North America last year, Bolivia turned to its South American neighbors in an attempt to sell its hefty gas reserves. But with the country's political outlook still murky, that...

Segas ramps up.
February 9, 2005... After a sputtering start that exacerbated Spanish gas shortages, the Spanish-Egyptian Gas (Segas) venture at Damietta is slowly ramping up production (WGI Jan.26,p6). Spanish demand may now ease, as the Damietta plant starts full...

Qatargas fires on all cylinders.
February 9, 2005... Qatar-based sources indicate that an announcement of its intention to go ahead with a Qatargas-4 venture, comprised of a single 7.8 million ton per year train for start-up around 2010-12, could come in the first half of this year (WGI...

Market insight: US regional mixup.(Insight)
February 9, 2005... The most valuable commodity in the US gas market of late has been Northeastern pipeline capacity, as the region obviously lacks enough to comfortably meet peak winter demand (p2). This is again illustrated in a striking dichotomy in price...

El Paso joining exodus from Asia, but not from Brazil--yet.(Current)
February 9, 2005... The self-destruction of the US energy merchant sector affected more than just pipelines and power plants in North America. At the height of their seeming prosperity, energy merchants such as El Paso, AES, Entergy and the infamous Enron itself...

Gas and power prices for major US and European hubs.(Current)
February 9, 2005... Gas in $/MMBtu, Power in $/MWh, Spark spread in $/MWh. All [euro] prices per MWh. Stanfield--5.58 Mid-Columbia--49.38 spark spread--10.33 Malin--5.66 COB--49.75 spark spread--10.11 Socal--5.78 Palo...

KBR says more LNG contruction possible--at a price.(Horizon)
February 9, 2005... These are heady days for engineering-procurement-contractors (EPC) specializing in the hydrocarbon sector. A slew of large, complex projects in often challenging locations has the industry hopping to keep up with the demand for LNG facilities,...

Tense Hazira opening.
February 16, 2005... Royal Dutch/Shell's LNG re-gasification facility in Hazira, in India's Gujarat state, is likely to receive its first cargo next month, nearly three months behind schedule, a senior Shell official told WGI on the sidelines of the Asia Gas Buyers...

Iran-India pipeline starts to look real.
February 16, 2005... Gas pipelines into India from Iran via Pakistan and from Myanmar via Bangladesh look like a solid possibility after India's cabinet last week authorized the petroleum ministry to negotiate with Pakistan, Bangladesh, Iran and Myanmar on such...

Sakhalin-1 eyes China.
February 16, 2005... The likelihood is growing that gas from the Exxon Mobil-led Sakhalin-1 project in Russia's Far East will end up in China, not Japan (WGI Nov. 10, p1). Exxon confirms to WGI that it has conducted a feasibility study for pipeline exports from...

Gains--and dangers--in tanker technology.
February 16, 2005... Scale has already been the source of the most significant of the efficiency gains that have brought a dramatic lowering in LNG unit costs, and more such gains are in the offing, particularly when it comes to shipping (WGI Apr. 14, p5). Indeed,...

Fast-growing BG speeds Egypt LNG.
February 16, 2005... BG Group this week announced healthy 2004 profits, a speed-up of its Egyptian LNG ventures, revised 2006 targets and even some broad LNG goals for 2010-15. One result should be a near-term surge in LNG supply to the US. Egypt LNG Train 1...

Latest US LNG moves.
February 16, 2005... Prospects for more LNG deliveries into the US Northeast advanced this week with announcements from two key regional players. Tractebel LNG North America, part of France's Suez, on Tuesday filed for permits to build a deepwater LNG port off the...

Danish champion?
February 16, 2005... Danish oil and gas group Dong may have won the latest round in the battle for Denmark's largest electricity company, Elsam, but the war is not over yet, as Swedish rival Vattenfall has a sufficiently large shareholding in Elsam to block its...

Namibia's Kudu gains.
February 16, 2005... UK upstream independent Tullow Oil has made "considerable progress" in recent months with the first phase of the long-stalled Kudu gas development offshore Namibia, in which it has a 90% operating stake. It hopes to "initiate the project in...

Centrica indexes coal.
February 16, 2005... Leading UK energy retailer Centrica said last week that it has signed its first agreement to buy power on a coal-indexed basis, with International Power (IP) for a daily 250 megawatts of peak electricity for three years, starting this October...

Gas prices head up in an oil elevator.
February 16, 2005... Oil prices are headed up from already inflated levels--perhaps to the $50-$100 range after 2005--and gas prices are headed even higher, with competition for supply from the US forcing Asians to pay crude oil parity or above for LNG, rather than...

IPE gas futures.(Insight)
February 16, 2005... IPE GAS FUTURES Contract Feb. 14 Week's Feb. 14 Month p/therm High/Low $/MMBtu Mar. '05 27.74 27.80/26.53 5.23 Apr. 27.17 27.20/26.48 5.12 May 26.25 26.30/25.35 4.95...

Nymex gas futures.(Insight)
February 16, 2005... NYMEX GAS FUTURES Contract Feb. 14 Week's Feb. 7 Month $/MMBtu High/Low $/MMBtu Mar. '05 6.093 6.27/5.95 5.969 Apr. 6.162 6.31/6.01 6.024 May 6.244 ...

Market insight: tasty terms in Asia.(Insight)
February 16, 2005... Asian LNG has not fully flipped over into a sellers' market yet, judging by South Korean and Japanese buyers' claims about recently negotiated long-term contracts (WGI Jan. 26, p8). Korea Gas Corp. (Kogas) demanded and obtained highly...

Asian LNG markets.(Insight)
February 16, 2005... ASIAN LNG MARKETS Prices in $/ton Buyer Seller Dec. '04 Nov. '04 Jan.-Dec. Dec. '03 Japan Abu Dhabi 268.18 247.08 247.48 238.95 Alaska ...

Oil majors remain shy of renewable, alternative energy.(Current)
February 16, 2005... With high prices bringing in more money than the oil majors know what to do with and limits still severe on the access to massive hydrocarbon deposits that they crave, it might seem that these mega-corporations would be plowing dollars into...

Challenge of getting top dollar for LNG in US gas market.(Horizon)
February 16, 2005... Even as US imports of LNG look set to grow at a breakneck rate and terminal proposals continue to proliferate, existing importers are struggling to address challenges posed by LNG in US downstream gas markets designed to accommodate domestic...

Shifting US LNG patterns.
February 23, 2005... LNG supply patterns into the US are set to change dramatically, beginning later this year. Several of the short-term supply contracts held by capacity holders at the Cove Point, Maryland, and Lake Charles, Louisiana, import terminals are about...

Iran pipeline gas to India looking pricey.
February 23, 2005... A proposed gas pipeline from Iran to India via Pakistan will gain further momentum with agreement by Iran to take responsibility for delivering the gas to the Indian border, rather than just to its border with Pakistan, thereby accepting...

France starting to see more gas swaps.
February 23, 2005... France's energy regulator Cre reports that relatively few eligible customers have so far switched suppliers, except in the more industrialized north and east of the country. But its gas release programs have spurred a marked increase in swaps....

Austrian angle on EU resale probes.
February 23, 2005... The European Commission last week formally ended a probe begun in 2001 into gas supply contracts between Russia's Gazprom and Austria's OMV, nine months after the two companies revised contractual terms (WGI May 12,p4). EU Competition...

Korean awards show Shell, Kogas still tops.
February 23, 2005... The South Korean government's selection of winners in a national tender for long-term LNG underscores both the continued strength of Royal Dutch/Shell's LNG business in Asia and the continued dominance of Korea Gas Corp. (Kogas) over the...

Sakhalin-2 successes.
February 23, 2005... Although talks on Gazprom's entry into the Royal Dutch/Shell-led Sakhalin-2 project on the Russian Pacific Shelf will continue this year after a late-2004 slowdown resulting from fluctuating plans for the takeover of Rosneft and...

US LNG free-for-all.
February 23, 2005... The chairman of the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has thrown his weight behind the view that commercial and local issues--not federal regulation--will be the factors determining how many LNG receiving terminals are built in the...

Seawater vaporization gets nod in US.
February 23, 2005... The Maritime Administration (Marad) in the US Department of Transportation last week granted Royal Dutch/Shell the final license needed for its proposed offshore LNG import terminal in the Gulf of Mexico, dubbed Gulf Landing. The decision...

Market insight: down with oil indexing.(Insight)
February 23, 2005... Even as UK and other Northwest European spot prices set by gas-to-gas competition were soaring this week, a senior European Commission official was criticizing the extent to which European gas prices remain indexed to oil (p8). Helmut...

Coal makes further inroads against gas in North America.(Current)
February 23, 2005... The shift to various forms of "clean coal" and away from natural gas to fuel new power plants in North America is gaining momentum, with US states now actively vying for clean-coal construction projects (WGI Sep.1,p7). The competition is even...

Exxon's dingle predicts global gas pricing link to coal.(Horizon)
February 23, 2005... When a senior executive of the world's largest publicly traded oil company talks about coal, not oil, as the eventual primary pricing benchmark for its trillions of cubic feet of natural gas, it's a clear sign of changing times. Exxon Mobil...

Sonatrach soon to be UK gas marketer.
February 23, 2005... Algerian state Sonatrach has been granted a UK gas shipper's license, enabling it to start marketing regasified LNG as soon as this spring. In October 2003, BP and Sonatrach jointly booked 20-year capacity rights for the 4.6 billion cubic...