World Gas Intelligence articles from January 2002

World Gas Intelligence archives from January 2002

Indian pipeline projects languish.(Brief Article)
January 2, 2002... India seems destined to receive only LNG from abroad for several years at least, not the combination of LNG and pipeline gas that has been considered. Until recently, the country had several international pipeline options which, despite...

Dolphin opens more prospects for Qatar.(Dolphin Energy Ltd.)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
January 2, 2002... The 25-year development and production-sharing agreement signed on Dec. 24 by Qatar and the Dolphin joint venture linking domestic concern UAE Offsets Group (UOG) and France's Total Fina Elf should see as much as 2 billion cubic feet per day...

Spanish gas regulator sees strong growth.(Comision Nacional de Energia)(Statistical Data Included)(Brief Article)
January 2, 2002... Spain's energy regulator, the Comision Nacional de Energia (CNE), expects gas consumption to rise during the 2000-05 period at an annual average rate of at least 12.8%, and perhaps as much as 19.1%. At the high end, this would mean consumption...

Mirant slashes LNG ambitions post-Enron.(liquefied natural gas)(Brief Article)
January 2, 2002... The downgrading of US Mirant's corporate credit rating to "junk" status by Moody's Investor Services in the wake of Enron's demise looks to have removed the Atlanta-based company for the time being from the ranks of US and European firms...

Lattice eyeing LNG terminal near London.(Lattice Group, liquefied natural gas)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
January 2, 2002... Lattice Group, the British Gas successor that owns Britain's gas network operator Transco, is weighing up the possibility of building an LNG import terminal near London offering third-party access, to be operational by 2004. Transco owns a...

Politicians feel heat of Enron allegations.(report by Public Citizen)(Brief Article)
January 2, 2002... The Washington watchdog group Public Citizen is charging bankrupt Enron with providing Texas Republican Senator Phil Gramm with more than $250,000 in campaign contributions over eight years in exchange for the senator's support of Enron-backed...

Fenosa Egypt contract.(Union Fenosa, Egyptian General Petroleum Corp.)(Brief Article)
January 2, 2002... Spain's Union Fenosa has awarded the engineering and construction contract for its planned LNG export terminal at Damietta in Egypt to a consortium led by US Halliburton KBR, with Japan's JGC and Spain's Tecnicas Reunidas. The contract is for...

First South Pars gas.(in Iran expected in January 2002)(Brief Article)
January 2, 2002... First gas from Iran's giant South Pars gas project is due to flow very soon, according to Total Fina Elf, which is developing phases two and three of South Pars with Russian state Gazprom and Malaysian state Petronas. First contracts were...

Algeria-Sardinia pipe.(pipe line feasibility study)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
January 2, 2002... Algerian state Sonatrach, Italian electricity giant Enel, and BASF's oil and gas unit Wintershall have agreed to fund a feasibility study on a subsea pipeline from El Kara on Algeria's northeast coast direct to the Italian island of Sardinia....

Lukoil sees itself selling Yamal LNG.(liquefied natural gas plant)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
January 2, 2002... Russia's largest oil company, Lukoil, is hatching plans to build a $1.5 billion LNG plant in the Yamal peninsula, as it targets a major expansion into gas production, company strategists tell EIG. The company's aim is to produce 60 billion...

Market insight: opposing forces in US. (Insight).(gas prices)(Statistical Data Included)
January 2, 2002... Weather malaise is over at last in US gas markets. The first steady blast of cold wintry air has arrived in key consuming regions -- bringing with it higher prices (WGI Dec.5,p6). But last winter's extreme volatility is unlikely to recur, due...

When gas-fired power clashes with hydroelectricity. (Current).(Norway and Brazil)(Brief Article)
January 2, 2002... It's difficult to get fired up on gas when there's water all around. Or such has been the experience of developers of new gas-fired generation capacity in overwhelmingly hydro-supplied power markets such as Brazil and Norway. Developers...

LNG shipping market cools -- or does it? (Horizon).(liquefied natural gas)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
January 2, 2002... The race to secure LNG tankers is no longer as fast and furious as it was last winter. Indeed, some industry players now say that a shipping glut is possible in the years ahead. Signals on this crucial question from the market for new LNG...

Turkey's slippery gas balance.(Brief Article)
January 9, 2002... The state of Turkish gas demand is one of the great mysteries of gas markets today, and one with potentially huge implications for European and central Asian balances. Turkish state pipeline operator Botas says that Iranian gas is now...

Offline, EnronOnline attracts little interest.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
January 9, 2002... If EnronOnline is the best trading platform for energy and other commodities, why aren't more bidders interested? Only banks Citigroup and UBS Warburg submitted offers for the 51% of EnronOnline that Enron is making available through an...

China's gas pipe project inches ahead.(PetroChina Company Ltd.)(Brief Article)
January 9, 2002... While confusion and delay continue to cloud prospects for China's planned 4,200 kilometer West-to-East gas pipeline, insiders from at least two of the camps in the multi-party discussions say that a definitive "deal" of some type could be...

US electricity execs Bemoan Enron effect.(Brief Article)
January 9, 2002... The Enron collapse is forcing US power producers and traders to focus on shoring up balance sheets and rebuilding confidence with shaken investors in the first half of 2002. As a result, US energy companies are shelving a growing number of...

US still lures LNG importers, exporters.
January 9, 2002... Despite weakening gas prices, access to US LNG import capacity continues to be a hot commodity, and exporters still see the country as an attractive outlet -- as Royal Dutch/Shell and El Paso demonstrated in different ways last week (p6). ...

New Israeli gas law.(Brief Article)
January 9, 2002... After months of delay, Israel's new Natural Gas Act was finally passed into law by the Israeli Knesset (parliament) in mid-December, by a wide margin (WGI Nov.21,p5). The act provides for setting up the Israeli Gas Co. to build and operate...

Algeria-Europe links.
January 9, 2002... The trans-Mediterranean pipeline under study by Italy's Enel, Germany's Wintershall, and Algerian state Sonatrach would link up to mainland Europe's gas network, not stop in Sardinia as initially seemed possible, according to details released...

Britain sets records.
January 9, 2002... Western Europe's biggest gas market set two new volume records last week: one for daily demand, the other for daily supply. Cold weather on Jan. 2 pushed gas demand in Great Britain to a new record daily high of 427 million cubic meters...

Philippine plant up.(Brief Article)
January 9, 2002... The 1,000 megawatt Santa Rita power station in the Philippines entered full commercial operation as a gas-burning unit on Jan. 1, according to the plant's 40% owner Britain's BG. Santa Rita switched to gas following last October's opening...

Gas business as usual in India, Pakistan.
January 9, 2002... Rising tension between India and Pakistan has left the subcontinent's gas industry largely unaffected. Austrian OMV recently launched production at the 320 billion cubic foot (9 billion cubic meter) Miano gas field in Pakistan (WGI...

Market insight: US proves undemanding. (Insight).
January 9, 2002... Winter is slipping away from US gas producers and marketers, and with it, hope for a recovery for months into the future. New forecasts predict a quick end to the North American heating season, itself already starting two months late, and signs...

Canada holds its course on electricity deregulation. (Current).
January 9, 2002... California's 2001 plunge into the pitfalls of electricity deregulation has not shaken Canada's resolve to move forward with its own unbundling efforts in 2002. The province of Ontario is aiming to open its $10 billion electricity market to...

Gazprom still struggling to find solid footing as 2002 opens. (Horizon).
January 9, 2002... Russia's troubled giant Gazprom failed to turn the corner to better business fortunes in 2001. Instead, the year turned out to be one more of reshuffling than of achievement. By year's end, virtually the entire management team of former...

UBS fight to save EnronOnline.(UBS Warburg)(Brief Article)
January 16, 2002... This week, collapsed US energy firm Enron handed over what was once the world's leading energy trading business to Swiss investment bank UBS Warburg in exchange for only a share in potential future profits of the operations. With Enron...

Gasunie ups exports without really trying.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
January 16, 2002... Russia, Norway, and the Netherlands together dominate the supply of gas to continental Northern Europe. Yet while Gazprom and Norway delivered less gas to the region last year, Dutch Gasunie boosted overall sales by 10%, with exports up by an...

Gazprom fires big guns at Sibur brass.(Brief Article)
January 16, 2002... A long-running, high-stakes battle to consolidate control over Gazprom and its assets in new hands loyal to Russian President Vladimir Putin took a new twist last week when Yakov Goldovsky, president of gas processor and petrochemical concern...

ENI's Blue Stream, Libya lines on track.(Brief Article)
January 16, 2002... The Blue Stream project is on track, with the first of two subsea pipelines running from southern Russia to Turkey's northern coast due to be in place by the end of March. Work is also set to start soon on an ENI line from Libya to Sicily. ...

Qatar progresses on Kuwait, Bahrain deals.(Brief Article)
January 16, 2002... Gas pipeline projects have become all the rage in the Mideast Gulf in the wake of the successful evolution of the Dolphin scheme to pipe Qatari gas to the United Arab Emirates (WGI Jan.2,p1). Together with Exxon Mobil, Qatar is pressing ahead...

Clash likely over Mexican contracts.(Brief Article)
January 16, 2002... While the Mexican Congress on Jan. 1 okayed a budget for 2002 that permits spending of up to $6 billion on big multiple-service contracts, that same Congress has called the contracts themselves into question as being illegal under the Mexican...

Dutch odd couple.(Essent Energie)(Gasunie)(Brief Article)
January 16, 2002... In the context of a planned aggressive expansion in the European retail market, Essent -- one of the largest power generators, as well as a trader and retail gas and power distributor in the Netherlands -- is eying a link-up with the newly...

Oslo backs Snohvit, but EU may fight.(European Union)(Brief Article)
January 16, 2002... On Friday, Norway's energy ministry formally proposed advancing the Statoil-operated 5.67 billion cubic meter per year (550 million cubic foot per day) Snohvit LNG project in the far northern Barents Sea. With Norway's environment-friendly...

Market insight: Korea keeps growing. (Insight).(Statistical Data Included)
January 16, 2002... The reported interest of such international heavyweights as Royal Dutch/Shell, US El Paso, and French Suez's Tractebel subsidiary in Enron's half of a South Korean gas distribution joint venture with SK Gas suggests that Asia's second largest...

Power becomes a magnet for international oil companies. (Current).(Brief Article)
January 16, 2002... The concurrent liberalization of gas and power markets around the globe is proving irresistible to many of the traditional international oil majors. Multilateral efforts to limit climate change by promoting renewable energy are adding to the...

Pitfalls and promises of branding electricity in Europe. (Horizon).(Brief Article)
January 16, 2002... The liberalization of power markets in Europe is presenting a whole new set of marketing challenges to former monopoly gas and power suppliers and new entrants alike: how to imprint and promote your brand in the consciousness of consumers of a...

LNG may sway US prices.(liquefied natural gas)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
January 23, 2002... A substantial surge in LNG imports could hit North American shores over the next decade. Given that the base is only 2% of US supply, LNG is still expected to remain at the fringe of US gas markets. But that doesn't mean that LNG imports can't...

Death, or setback to E.ON's Ruhrgas bid?(German competition authorities may block acquisition)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
January 23, 2002... German competition authorities may have dealt a blow to power giant E.ON's plan to take control of major gas player Ruhrgas, but the battle for the lynchpin of central European gas trading is far from over. The cartel office cited concerns...

Turkmen export aims.(Vladimir Putin supports Saparmurat Niyazov's plan for gas alliance)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
January 23, 2002... Russian President Vladimir Putin has given tentative backing to an initiative of Turkmen leader Saparmurat Niyazov to set up an alliance of former Soviet gas producers -- even though the two countries are having trouble settling bilateral...

Origin of questionable Enron accounts.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
January 23, 2002... The aggressive accounting practices that ultimately led to Enron's downfall may have begun more than 10 years ago, when the once giant energy trading company allegedly misled the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) about the effects of its...

China narrows LNG supplier candidates.(Guangdong liquefied natural gas project)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
January 23, 2002... Australia LNG, Indonesia's Tangguh project, and Qatar's Rasgas have been short-listed to supply 3 million tons per year of LNG (4.14 billion cubic meters of gas) to China's Guangdong LNG project from late 2005. The winner is due to be announced...

Egyptian LNG set to hit France by 2005.(Gaz de France signs deal with BG PLC and Italian Edison, liquefied natural gas)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
January 23, 2002... Increasingly large LNG export ambitions in Egypt and import ambitions in France both got a boost with the signing last week by UK-based BG and partner Italian Edison of a head of terms agreement to sell the full output of the first train of...

Iran, Turkey talk of broader gas links.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
January 23, 2002... Iran and Turkey this week officially inaugurated the pipeline to bring Iranian gas to Turkey, following the first flow of gas through the 2,577 kilometer line in December. This ended more than a year of delays that periodically gave rise to...

Dabhol's lenders want to sell quick.(Dabhol Power Co.)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
January 23, 2002... The domestic Indian institutions that have lent the bulk of the capital for India's Dabhol gas and power project have finally fixed a schedule for the sale of an 85% stake in Dabhol Power Co. The timing is fortuitous, as the number of...

What phase are they in at South Pars?(Iran's South Pars gas project)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
January 23, 2002... Iran seems to be having more than the usual difficulty in deciding how to proceed with the next phases of the giant South Pars gas project, which is already beset by delays and financing problems (WGI Jan.5,p5). One reason is a desire to move...

Market insight: Euro hub crisis. (Insight).(Continental Europe's second largest gas trading hub)(Statistical Data Included)
January 23, 2002... Continental Europe's second-place contender after Belgium's Zeebrugge for top gas trading hub -- the pipeline interconnect between Oude in the Netherlands and Bunde in Germany, plus the associated beach delivery point at Emden -- is in crisis....

German electricity deregulation flaws reminiscent of California. (Current).
January 23, 2002... Spikes in German electricity prices have recently brought the problems inherent in imperfect market deregulation back into harsh focus. And worse could be in store, in an eerie echo of last year's power crisis in California (WGI Jun.20,p1)....

Pacific, Atlantic Basin LNG markets looking more alike. (Horizon).
January 23, 2002... Growing LNG consumption and trade in the US, Europe, and other Atlantic Basin markets will have no impact on availability of LNG supplies to long-time consumers in Japan and other Pacific Basin nations. However, it is likely to bring changes in...

Indian Petronet's price rethink.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
January 30, 2002... Suresh Mathur, the head of India's state-controlled LNG importing venture Petronet, recently returned from the inauguration of RasGas's third train in Qatar -- a facility destined to supply LNG to India -- with plenty of cause for satisfaction...

Enron sales lag in emerging markets.(Brief Article)
January 30, 2002... Bankrupt Enron hopes to raise $4 billion-$6 billion by selling energy assets in Latin America and Asia. And there are willing buyers in both regions, particularly at a good price. But buying Enron assets in these emerging markets takes...

Miller says no to Gazprom split-up.(Brief Article)
January 30, 2002... If Russian monolith Gazprom is reorganized, it won't be at the instigation of the company's own chief executive, Alexei Miller. Rather, Miller surprised some parliamentarians by telling the State Duma, Russia's lower house of parliament, late...

US LNG prospects suddenly look slim.(Brief Article)
January 30, 2002... Only a year ago, announcements of plans for new US LNG import terminals were coming out at the rate of about one per week, as gas prices soared to unheard of heights of around $10 per million Btu on indications that North American supplies were...

Canadian oil sands swallow up gas.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
January 30, 2002... Within five years, the volume of crude oil flowing from Alberta's oil sands is expected to surpass the current 1 million barrel per day output of Alaska's North Slope. By the end of the decade, 2 million b/d could be flowing from this...

Studying Bangladesh export prospects.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
January 30, 2002... In the latest of several studies on Bangladesh's gas reserve base, the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate postulates a total of 64 trillion cubic feet (1.8 trillion cubic meters). That's nearly double the figure put forth in an earlier study by...

Algerian power law.(Brief Article)
January 30, 2002... Algeria's new electricity bill, which lays out plans to end state Sonelgaz's monopoly in electricity and gas distribution and facilitate private power projects, became law last week when it was approved by the upper house of Parliament. It was...

Centrica in Canada.(UK energy retailer)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
January 30, 2002... The UK's largest energy retailer, Centrica, expects to more than double its customer base in Canada with the agreed purchase of the home and business services operation of Canada's Enbridge for US$621 million (C$1 billion). Subject to...

Williams' Slovak foray.(pipeline and trading company)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
January 30, 2002... US pipeline and trading company Williams has been mentioned as another possible bidder for the 49% stake that the Slovak government has put on the block in national gas pipeline and storage concern Slovensky Plynarensky Priemysel (SPP), a...

Gas exporters club to meet in Algiers.(Brief Article)
January 30, 2002... Delegates from 15 countries are expected to be in Algiers from Feb. 1-3 for what is billed as the second ministerial meeting of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum. Several of its leading luminaries are Opec members, and gas pricing issues are...

Market insight: US LNG imports plunge. (Insight).(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
January 30, 2002... Last winter, everyone in the business -- including a slew of newcomers -- was scrambling to get hold of cargoes to take to the red-hot US gas market. Half way through the year, imports were up 55% on a year earlier, according to data from the...

Brazil makes some progress on electricity pricing front. (Current).(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
January 30, 2002... Brazil, over 90% dependent on hydroelectric power to serve its electricity needs and suffering both rationing and blackouts as water is scarce, is still hunting for the perfect solution to its need for gas-fired power plants. But it has made...

EU getting tough on gas, power market liberalization. (Horizon).(Brief Article)
January 30, 2002... With Euros now successfully placed in consumers' pockets, a confident European Commission, backed by a determined presidency, is adopting a tough new stance in an attempt to force progress on the opening up of Europe's energy markets. ...