World Gas Intelligence articles from February 2006

World Gas Intelligence archives from February 2006

US feels global shocks.
February 1, 2006... By almost any reckoning, 2005 was a lackluster year for the US LNG industry. Imports receded 3.5% from 2004, clocking in at 630 billion cubic feet (1.726 billion cubic feet per day) compared with 653 Bcf (13.7 million tons) the year earlier,...

BG becomes first brass LNG customer.
February 1, 2006... BG this week signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to buy 2 million tons per year of LNG from Nigeria's Brass LNG venture, a 10 million ton/yr project backed by Eni, ConocoPhillips, Chevron and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. (NNPC)....

NW shelf renewals under threat.
February 1, 2006... Australia is likely to remain a key supplier of LNG to Japan into the next decade, but it's less clear how important the North West Shelf export project will be in the equation as contracts expire and alternative Australian projects such as...

Normality slowly returning in Europe.
February 1, 2006... European markets were slowly returning to normal last week after a bout of record-cold weather that both set new demand records and caused reductions in Russian supply. Coming on top of a brief early-January cutoff in Russian supplies to...

Pertamina eyes mini LNG for Donggi gas.
February 1, 2006... Having failed to come up with enough gas in central Sulawesi to support its much touted Donggi LNG project, Indonesian state Pertamina is considering a "mini" LNG scheme to help fill its growing export supply deficit. This appears to be...

Central Asian capers.
February 1, 2006... Things haven't all gone wrong for Russia's Gazprom lately (p3). It scored two successes over the last week in its campaign to expand in Central Asia, signing new agreements with Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. The Kyrgyz deal may be part of a...

Falling US forecasts.
February 1, 2006... US gas market analysts surveyed by WGI sister publication Natural Gas Week have slashed more than $1 per million Btu off their average forecast for Henry Hub prices in the first quarter of 2006, to $9.60 from $10.69 three months ago, as...

Chevron spells out its LNG strategy.
February 1, 2006... For all the talk a few years back about spot trading being the way of the future in the international LNG business, greenfield projects still require firm long-term contracts for financing because of the size and cost of the ventures, says...

Market insight: spot LNG still tight.(Insight)
February 1, 2006... The global LNG market remains in the same crunch it's been in since December, with traders keeping their ears to the ground for opportunities to tap the high price environment. South Korea and Japan are responsible for much of the strain....

Wholesale power trade takes off in Europe, gas lags.(CURRENT)
February 1, 2006... Europe's wholesale power markets enjoyed a bumper year in 2005, with trading volumes up in most major centers thanks not least to the entry of new participants--particularly banks and investment funds. Their arrival is a sign of the market's...

Russian gas cuts turn energy security into top EU priority.(Horizon)
February 1, 2006... If nothing else, this winter's two abrupt dips in Russian gas flows to Europe--the first a Gazprom policy response to a row with Ukraine over gas pricing and transit terms, and the second an unavoidable response to extremely cold weather in...

Spanish shake-up.
February 8, 2006... The 20 conditions that Spain's government attached to its approval last Friday of Gas Natural's (GN) hostile takeover of the country's largest power group, Endesa, include a second auction by GN of contracted gas purchase volumes and the sale...

Bolivia grapples with conflicting gas goals.
February 8, 2006... Talks between the government of Bolivia's newly elected President Evo Morales and some of the country's largest gas producers are off to a good start, according to one senior energy executive in Santa Cruz. "They assured companies they had no...

Dabhol revival slips on gas prices.
February 8, 2006... The politics of restarting the 2,184 megawatt power plant and associated LNG receiving terminal now owned by Indian state-controlled Ratnagiri Gas and Power (RGP) are nearly as convoluted as they were when the now defunct Enron tried early this...

Gazprom eyes more gas to Turkey, beyond.
February 8, 2006... Even as it struggles to keep full gas volumes flowing to Europe amid an extended bout of unusually cold weather inside Russia, Gazprom is pushing full speed ahead in its drive to line up new and expanded export routes and gain tighter control...

Croatian LNG terminal plan in a tangle.
February 8, 2006... The LNG import terminal project recently promoted by Croatia to its neighbors as a means to reduce dependence on Russian gas is not the settled plan that its decade-long history might imply. Its preferred site at Krk Island is owned by a county...

Itera comeback likely.
February 8, 2006... Itera, the US-registered gas trader with reputed strong links back to the Yeltsin-era management of Gazprom, may be poised to reappear on the scene after being squeezed out of much of its former business by the Putin-era Gazprom. The...

Western Canada LNG.
February 8, 2006... Unlike its counterparts on the US East Coast, an LNG receiving terminal project in British Columbia is getting good reviews from environmentalists and locals living near the site of the proposed plant (p8). What's more, although the main...

Spain's peculiar LNG storage scheme.
February 8, 2006... Winter is taking its toll on Spain again this year (WGI Feb.2'05,p5). For the last few months the country has been scrambling for LNG cargoes amid record-cold temperatures. To stabilize its position, Spain has lined up extra storage in an...

Market insight: US winter's last chance.(Insight)
February 8, 2006... The North American gas market appeared poised as the week started to shake off the effects of weeks of unseasonably mild weather, but not before February baseload prices took a substantial hit in bidweek trading. Just as the first major gust of...

Coal enjoying renaissance in Europe, as well as in US.(Current)
February 8, 2006... The US isn't the only place where coal is enjoying a renaissance. In Europe, too, demand for the fuel is strong across the continent, and planners are beginning to contemplate new construction, with attention gravitating toward highly efficient...

Test near of federal ability to advance US LNG terminals.(Horizon)
February 8, 2006... Despite worries over future gas supply in the US, companies are having a hard time building LNG import infrastructure. If such difficulties persist, some wonder out loud whether such places as the US Northeast and California will ever have new...

Chicago gas futures?
February 15, 2006... Henry Hub may soon have competition from Chicago Citygate for the role of US gas market benchmark, just as the Louisiana pricing point is becoming a standard for the global spot LNG trade. Many physical and futures gas traders in the US are...

UK LNG projects await legal ruling.
February 15, 2006... Developers and critics of two massive UK LNG import terminals already well into construction in Milford Haven, Wales anxiously await a decision from the Appeal Court in London on whether the two projects should be subject to a judicial review...

Germany opens a bit.
February 15, 2006... Germany's Federal Cartel Office (FCO) said Tuesday it has struck a deal with seven regional gas suppliers, most affiliates of E.On or RWE, that enables their customers to switch suppliers starting this April--15 months before the EU deadline...

BG outlines LNG, North Africa ambitions.
February 15, 2006... BG Group outlined the scale of its Algerian LNG swap trade and its wider North African and global ambitions at its full-year results presentation last week, while forecasting that its global LNG supply would grow by a compound 28% per year from...

Outlet for Vietnam gas find uncertain.
February 15, 2006... A Petrovietnam-led consortium has firmed up a large gas discovery at the Su Tu Trang field in Block 15-1, offshore southeast Vietnam, which could hold up to 4 trillion cubic feet of recoverable wet gas and 300 million barrels of condensate,...

Angolan Sonangol eyes Portugal entry.
February 15, 2006... Angolan state Sonangol looks set to follow the likes of Algeria's Sonatrach and Oman Oil Co. into the Iberian energy market. But whereas the other two are well established in Spain, Sonangol is looking to plant roots in Portugal. And it's still...

Designing Calhoun LNG.
February 15, 2006... Gulf Coast LNG Partners is proceeding apace with plans to develop the proposed Calhoun LNG regasification terminal at the Port of Port Lavaca and Point Comfort on Lavaca Bay, about 120 miles south-southwest of Houston, Calhoun President Chris...

Algerian power plays.
February 15, 2006... Algeria's state Sonelgaz has reiterated plans, first announced in September, to invest some $6.9 billion over the next five years mainly in projects aimed at meeting demand at home--but also on expanding abroad and entering new sectors,...

Sagunto keeps Spanish LNG growing.
February 15, 2006... Spain's LNG industry--already the most voluminous in Europe--is set to get even bigger with the start-up of the Sagunto terminal on the Costa del Azahar in the Mediterranean. Terminal shareholder Union Fenosa Gas (UFG) brought in the first...

Market insight: Asian price dynamics.(Insight)
February 15, 2006... A sense of deja vu accompanied China National Offshore Oil Corp.'s (CNOOC) failure last week to reach agreement with Indonesian authorities in talks that followed a request by Tangguh LNG to renegotiate pricing terms contained in the 25year...

Hydropower crisis in Southern Europe feeds gas demand.(Current)
February 15, 2006... Europe is facing a hydropower shortage again this year, particularly in the south, where a drought remains unbroken following lower-than-average rainfall in recent months. This will probably cause Spanish generators to continue soaking up...

Suez outlines ambitious North American LNG supply plan.(Horizon)
February 15, 2006... France's Suez prides itself on occupying a wide variety of slots along the energy value chain, with businesses in electricity generation, gas pipelines and LNG reaching all corners of the globe. For now, LNG's role in the operations of the $37...

E.On's Endesa strategy.
February 22, 2006... Any doubts about E.On's determination to shift its heretofore Ruhrgas-dominated gas business toward LNG and reduce its exposure to Russian supplies ended with the German utility's stunning 29.1 billion [euro] ($34.6 billion) all-cash bid...

Qatar mulls exclusive marketing role.
February 22, 2006... Qatar is in the advanced stages of creating an independent marketing entity to oversee the sales of petroleum and gas-related products, industry sources tell WGI. The new fully-independent company, to be named Qatar International Petroleum...

Egypt looks serious on gas to Turkey.
February 22, 2006... Egypt is pushing ahead with efforts to export gas by pipeline to Europe via Turkey. Cairo and Ankara inked a memorandum of understanding (MOU) last week during a visit by Egyptian Minister of Petroleum Sameh Fahmi to Istanbul that envisages...

BG gets Chile LNG supply deal--for now.
February 22, 2006... BG last week won exclusive rights to negotiate for the construction--and later supply--of Chile's first LNG receiving terminal. However, the UK company will have to come up with a tempting price and reasonable volumes to make the proposal...

Politics lead India to competing pipes.
February 22, 2006... Domestic politics have pushed India's Congress-led coalition government to publicly profess interest in the India-Pakistan-Iran gas pipeline project, while at the same time international politics have the country agreeing on paper at least to...

PNG gas: AGL in, here comes Santos?
February 22, 2006... Last week the $3.5 billion Papua New Guinean gas pipeline project led by Exxon Mobil took another step in its painfully slow trek towards approval when local explorer Oil Search completed the sale of its 10% interest in the venture to...

Tunisia gas surge.
February 22, 2006... Tunisia should see a major influx of new gas late this decade from two key projects. Societe Tunisienne d'Electicite et du Gaz (Steg) and Libya's National Oil Corp. (NOC) are finally moving forward on their Jointgaz venture to pipe 2 billion...

Qatargas Train 1 still not operating.
February 22, 2006... Qatargas Train 1, which was taken out of operation in October, is still not up and running, a source close to the company tells WGI. countering reports to the contrary from market sources (WGI Jan. 11,p6). Repairs to the cracks in a scrub...

Market insight: UK price surge.(Insight)
February 22, 2006... Chilly weather in Northwest Europe, coupled with a fire that put the UK's largest storage facility out of operation, probably for a month, sent prices in the region soaring, rescuing spot markets from a slump that looked to be gathering steam...

Carbon emissions policy starting to gain traction in US.(CURRENT)
February 22, 2006... Reflecting the rising level of attention carbon emissions are getting in the US--despite the Bush administration's rejection of the Kyoto Protocol on global warming--a leading electricity executive told the recent Cambridge Energy Research...

Chevron quits brass LNG, to seek simpler, safer projects.(Horizon)
February 22, 2006... Chevron's withdrawal from the long-mooted 10 million ton (13.8 billion cubic meter) per year Brass LNG scheme may reflect a decision that the company has too many projects on the boil. Equally, it may stem from rising concerns over security and...