World Gas Intelligence articles from January 2003

World Gas Intelligence archives from January 2003

Gazprom eyes Turkey, spot UK.
January 1, 2003... Russian gas monopoly Gazprom signaled late December its aim to step up long-term and spot sales to Western Europe in 2003. Yet rather than breakneck volume expansion, its strategy remains one of cautious growth, dictated both by upstream...

GdF expands through purchase in Germany.
January 1, 2003... Gaz de France (GdF) is to buy Preussag Energie, the energy unit of German tour operator Tui for around one billion euros ($1.04 billion) subject to German competition authority approval, after reportedly outbidding Exxon Mobil, BASF-Wintershall...

Top US rankings lose their cachet.
January 1, 2003... For almost a decade the quarterly rankings of North America's largest natural gas and power marketers by industry publications provided bragging rights to energy trading and marketing firms. But those figures no longer command the attention...

BG's claims Brazilian gas pipeline capacity.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... BG Group will be selling less gas direct to growing Brazilian gas utility Comgas, which it co-owns, starting Jan. 1, 2003. But the UK group can console itself with having secured the first long-term capacity assignment in the Brazilian...

Norway's Gassled finally confirmed.
January 1, 2003... Ownership of Norway's newly-integrated subsea gas pipeline system, Gassled, was finally confirmed on Dec. 20 after earlier parliamentary approval. Owners, in descending order of their equity stakes from Jan. 1, 2003 include state Petoro,...

NLNG gets expansion jointly funded.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... NLNG signed a $1.06 billion loan on Dec. 19 with four export credit agencies, the African Development Bank, 19 international banks, and six Nigerian banks, which will go towards the $2.1 billion cost of building its fourth and fifth trains...

Atlantic Canada's LNG plan slips.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... Plans for the proposed Irving LNG regasification terminal in St. John, New Brunswick, have shifted from high to low gear. A new timetable for the project, originally due to be operational by end 2005, will be drawn sometime in the first quarter...

PNG loses key client, finds another.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... Exxon Mobil and non-operating partner Oil Search got some good news last week regarding their $3.8 billion pipeline project to take gas from Papua New Guinea (PNG) to Australia's Queensland state, after bad news just before Christmas. MIM...

Snohvit snowballs.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... Developing the world's most northerly LNG project will cost $805 million more than originally budgeted, Snohvit LNG operator Statoil officially confirmed last month, taking the revised cost to an estimated $6.3 billion. Work by main...

AES quits Africa.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... Merchant power group AES Corp. has pulled out of sub-Saharan Africa. Last month it agreed to sell interests in two projects--one involving Tanzanian gas, the other coal in South Africa--to UK state-owned CDC Group, which has already made...

Dutch tariff cuts.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... Dutch onshore pipeline operator Gastransport Services (GTS), part of Gasunie, is adjusting transportation tariffs for 2003. Compared with tariffs published at the end of September, the exit tariffs forming part of the entry/exit system are...

Market insight: UK imports 45% by 2012. (Insight).(Industry Overview)
January 1, 2003... Spotting trends a day ahead is tough, so spare a thought for Britain's onshore gas pipeline operator Transco which annually publishes a ten-year UK supply/demand forecast to justify capital spending to its customers and regulator Ofgem. ...

FERC stalls over development of a single US power market. (Current).(Federal Energy Regulatory Commission)
January 1, 2003... Taking control of the US long-distance electricity transmission system out of state hands and developing a single, market-oriented approach to management of the huge national grid--one that will hopefully avoid a repeat of the 2000-01...

The great European Union energy tax debate rages on. (Horizon).(Industry Overview)
January 1, 2003... The path to a single energy market for the European Union has never been smooth. Every step forward has required intensive negotiation to obtain agreement among all 15 of the member states, some of which are prone to block progress in order to...

Venezuela's gas crisis.(Industry Overview)
January 8, 2003... While attention has focused mainly on the oil impact of Venezuela's five-week general strike, joined by some 30,000 workers of state Petroleos de Venezuela, the action is also revealing how important gas is both for domestic use and for...

US becomes more LNG receptive.
January 8, 2003... Sparse LNG receiving capacity and a perception that it would be virtually impossible to tackle that scarcity by licensing new domestic onshore sites beyond those housing the for existing US import facilities have been articles of faith driving...

One bit--only--of South Pars on time.
January 8, 2003... Total Fina Elf and partners Russian Gazprom and Malaysian state Petronas are gearing up to hand over to Iran the keys to Phases 2 and 3 of the giant South Pars project, which in autumn 2002 reached targeted production of 2 billion cubic feet...

BG launches work on Egypt LNG Train 2.
January 8, 2003... Growing regional gas power Egypt has opened 2003 on a high note. In a sign that it is close to lining up firm buyers for the second Egypt LNG (ELNG) train, BG Group announced this week that it had authorized an engineering, procurement, and...

Gasunie, Suez Hone long-term strategy.
January 8, 2003... Dutch Gasunie and Belgium's Distrigas--the two largest midstream players in the Benelux states of Northwest Europe--have each outlined new strategic links being developed with Western Europe's two largest external gas suppliers, Russia and...

Reliance's gas plans.(Reliance Industries)(Brief Article)
January 8, 2003... Reliance Industries is sketching out plans for use of the gas found some 20 kilometers offshore India's eastern state of Andhra Pradesh. Use in the company's own power plants is emerging as a likely option. Reliance officials say that they...

Interconnector switch.(Interconnector UK)
January 8, 2003... Interconnector UK, operator of the 230 kilometer subsea pipeline between England and Belgium, again reversed gas flows on Monday morning, Jan. 6, back to UK import mode. Normally, flows reverse only once each winter. But in the space of...

Trans-Afghan pipe still looks iffy.(Trans-Afghanistan gas pipeline)
January 8, 2003... Leaders from Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, and Pakistan signed a framework agreement last month laying out legal principles for establishing a consortium to build the much-discussed Trans-Afghanistan gas pipeline, taking 15 billion-20 billion...

Market insight: US gyrations. (Insight).(Illustration)
January 8, 2003... Contradictory weather forecasts and confirmation that US industrial demand is at last making a comeback have combined to breathe new life into a US gas market previously stalled by mild temperatures and light demand at somewhat under $5 per...

Battle heats up over pollution rules for US coal-fired plants. (Current).
January 8, 2003... Efforts by the administration of US President George Bush to facilitate continued use of existing coal-fired power plants by reinterpreting the 1990 Clean Air Act are running up against heavy political opposition from both state governments and...

Indonesia in uphill fight to retain top LNG supply slot. (Horizon).(Industry Overview)
January 8, 2003... In 1999, Indonesia sold nearly 30 million tons of LNG, or some 41.4 billion cubic meters of gas. By 2001, sales had slipped to 25 million tons, amid a four-month closure of the Arun liquefaction plant in the strife-torn western province of Aceh...

Thin Atlantic arbitrage.(no pickup in LNG deliveries to the US appears to be in the offing)
January 15, 2003... Despite prompt gas prices over $5 per million Btu in the US--and over $8/MMBtu in the Boston region around Suez-controlled Tractebel's Everett, Massachusetts, receiving terminal--no pickup in LNG deliveries to the US appears to be in the...

Nigeria to end flaring not late, maybe early.(Nigeria's President Olusegun Obasanjo advanced deadline for eliminating flaring of associated gas to 2004 from 2008)
January 15, 2003... Nigeria's President Olusegun Obasanjo raised eyebrows last week when he abruptly advanced the deadline for eliminating flaring of associated gas in the country to 2004 from 2008. The announcement took leading joint venture investors...

West Africa gas pipe set to leap hurdle.
January 15, 2003... The ChevronTexaco and Royal Dutch/Shell-sponsored West African Gas (WAG) pipeline scheme should pass another critical milestone on Jan. 30, when the presidents of Nigeria, Ghana, Togo, and Benin are expected to sign an intergovernmental treaty...

Price reform key to India's gas future.
January 15, 2003... Delay in gas price reform is threatening to trip up both domestic gas developments and import projects into India (p5). The Qataris, on the cusp of supplying 5 million tons per year of LNG to India, are worried. So is Petronet LNG, the...

Wintry peaks, yet German demand flat.
January 15, 2003... Two of Germany's top three gas marketers, BEB and Verbundnetz Gas (VNG), boosted sales last year despite milder weather. But exports and sales into others' German storage may have helped, as a survey suggests that German gas consumption overall...

Interest keen in Basque privatization.(Naturcorp gets four final bids)
January 15, 2003... The privatization of gas assets in Spain's Basque region, grouped together as Naturcorp, has reached its final phase. An original 20 interested companies has been whittled down to just four final bids, with results to be announced before the...

Kuwait's gas boost.(Kuwait to import gas from Iran and Qatar )(Brief Article)
January 15, 2003... It was good news all around this week for gas-short Kuwait, which concluded a preliminary deal on Sunday to import gas from Iran and saw stalled plans to import gas from Qatar boosted by Saudi Arabia's decision to allow the pipeline to transit...

Tractebel asset sales.(Suez to cut capital investments, could divest assets)(Brief Article)
January 15, 2003... French conglomerate Suez last week announced plans to reduce the amount of capital it has invested in emerging markets by around one-third by 2005--signaling that it aims to divest some 3 billion euros ($3.17 billion) of assets. This...

Reliance reserves.(Reliance Industries makes offshore gas find, India)
January 15, 2003... A clearer and somewhat less grandiose picture has emerged of the actual size of Reliance Industries' recent gas find in India's offshore Krishna Godavari Basin (WGI Jan.8,p4). India's upstream regulator gives 4.5 trillion-5 trillion cubic...

Pipelines to India.(proposed gas pipeline projects with Iran and Bangladesh fare poorly)(Brief Article)
January 15, 2003... Tehran has told New Delhi that Iran is willing to offer gas to India at a border price of $1.80 per million Btu and perhaps less, through an overland pipeline passing through Pakistan, and Iranian officials proposed setting up an international...

Correction.(Correction Notice)
January 15, 2003... WGI wrongly stated in its Jan. 8 story `US Becomes More LNG Receptive' that only existing capacity at the Lake Charles, Louisiana, receiving terminal in the US is contracted to BG Group. In fact, BG has contracted to take both existing and...

Market insight: cold comfort for Kogas. (Insight).(Korea Gas Corp seeks to meet high gas demand while supplies are tight)(Illustration)
January 15, 2003... Unusually cold weather has Korea Gas Corp. (Kogas) still struggling to meet gas demand this winter. Short-haul spot supplies of LNG have all but dried up, and Kogas is paying up to pull in Mideast and North African supplies that would otherwise...

Atlantic divide in post-Enron prospects for power traders. (Current).(Illustration)
January 15, 2003... A year after Enron's spectacular collapse, very different prospects have emerged for power markets on either side of the Atlantic. In the US, it's easier to come up with a list of earlier candidates that will not, in fact, be stepping into the...

Qatar: jewel inside US strategic ring? Or risky toehold? (Eye On Iraq).
January 15, 2003... Just as Qatar is lining up a role for itself as the world's leading supplier of LNG--including to the US and UK, as well as other parts of Europe--and gas-based liquids, key players in the administration of US President George Bush are...

US LNG regime change.(a new law could lead to construction of new liquefied natural gas receiving terminals in the U.S.)
January 22, 2003... A new US law that took effect only on Nov. 25 has already helped spur action by potential developers of offshore LNG receiving terminals, according to participants at a maritime gas industry-sponsored seminar convened last week in New York City...

Kogas tightens hold on spot LNG trade.(Korea Gas Corp. reels in more supplies of liquefied natural gas)
January 22, 2003... Korea Gas Corp. (Kogas) continues to reel in incremental supplies of LNG, including by diverting more Mideast and Atlantic Basin cargoes (WGI Jan.15.p6). BP and Repsol revealed last week that, in December, they resold to Kogas a 55,000 ton...

Rising Taiwan imports.(liquefied natural gas)(Brief Article)
January 22, 2003... The Chinese Petroleum Corp. (CPC) of Taiwan indicated last week that it expects to raise imports of LNG by 8.3% to 5.5 million tons in 2003. Just over 4 million tons will go for power generation, and the balance for industrial use. Currently,...

Why Pertamina won't fix BP-field pipeline.(costly repairs needed for possibly dangerous gas pipeline)
January 22, 2003... Indonesian state Pertamina--already facing a potential slide in LNG export volumes and a full-scale government review of its structure and powers--is now confronting major problems with domestic gas supply, as well (WGI Jan.8,p8). BP...

Russian production, exports rise in 2002.(Gazprom)
January 22, 2003... Gazprom in 2002 helped to reverse a long-standing decline in Russian gas production, hiking its corporate output by just over 2% to 523.79 billion cubic meters (50.6 billion cubic feet per day). Overall national production rose 2.4% to 595.3...

Egypt charges ahead with gas projects.
January 22, 2003... Egypt is progressing briskly in efforts to develop its growing gas reserves, which officials say now stretch to nearly 120 trillion cubic feet in the probable category, of which about half are proven. The first upstream licensing round run by...

Venezuela sets date for Deltana awards.(exploration contracts)
January 22, 2003... After four strike-torn weeks of delay, the Venezuelan government has set early February as the date for awarding contracts to explore and exploit four of the five fields that comprise the $3.8 billion Deltana Platform project, with its proposed...

US reserve study.(Western U.S. hydrocarbon reserves)(Brief Article)
January 22, 2003... A new federal study of hydrocarbon reserves in the Western US that was widely expected to bolster a push by the administration of President George Bush for greater access for drilling on federal lands may, in fact, undermine that campaign. ...

PetroChina gas sales.(buyers for pipeline gas)(Brief Article)
January 22, 2003... PetroChina claims to have signed initial sales agreements with 17 buyers for 2.8 billion cubic meters per year of gas from the planned West-to-East pipeline--virtually all the gas that the state oil company aims to pump through the line in the...

Algerian law stalls.(hydrocarbon law)(Brief Article)
January 22, 2003... Following Algeria's decision this month to take its draft hydrocarbon law off the legislative agenda after more than two years of debate, reforms in the downstream power and electricity sector now appear set to go unmatched by those in the...

New French gas law.(European Union Gas Directive enacted)
January 22, 2003... France formally enacted the 1998 European Union Gas Directive on Jan. 3, some 30 months after the Aug. 10, 2000, deadline laid down in that original directive. The 2007 deadline for full market opening isn't cited in this act, so France must...

Trans-Atlantic controversy over power market liberalization. (Current).(U.S., Germany)
January 22, 2003... Events over the last week in Washington and in Berlin demonstrate just how politically controversial electricity market liberalization remains on either side of the North Atlantic--at the same time that Western investment capital available for...

Europeans join US merchants in fleeing emerging markets. (Horizon).(energy merchants)
January 22, 2003... It's a poor time to be selling power assets in the developing world. Much is on offer--possibly $15 billion worth worldwide--and buyers are few. Argentina's devaluation and Enron's collapse, both in late 2001, caused energy merchants worldwide...

Market insight: Dutch hub active. (Insight).(European futures, price data)(Illustration)
January 22, 2003... The consensus among traders is that it's still too early to tell how the new Dutch national gas balancing point, known as the Title Tracking Facility or TTF, will perform over time against two competing trading hubs based at the nearby...

French regulator gets tough.(gas market competition)
January 29, 2003... France's energy regulator (Cre) has begun to show its mettle, demanding improved access for market entrants by 2004, especially at Gaz de France's (GdF) LNG receiving terminals at Fos and Montoir, in a bid to bolster gas-on-gas competition in...

Mexican gas dream faces political reality.(gas production contracts may be unconstitutional; production, import strategies)
January 29, 2003... Mexico's odd state strategy to obtain gas for its growing electric power and industrial needs pits domestic production gains against LNG imports as options for restraining the call on supplies from the increasingly gas-short US. Today, it looks...

New group of LNG customers in Japan.(small, mid-sized gas utilities)
January 29, 2003... A growing number of small to mid-sized gas utilities in Japan may be importing LNG directly over the coming decade, creating an entirely new class of customer for the big projects that supply that market. One of the first solid moves in...

US utilities no safe haven for investors.
January 29, 2003... More evidence is emerging of the still--and perhaps increasingly--precarious financial condition of US electric utilities and gas pipelines. And the picture is likely to get uglier before it improves. A spate of such companies has reduced...

Attacks dim outlook for Pakistani pipeline.
January 29, 2003... Concerted attack on gas pipelines last week by warring tribes in Pakistan cast a further pall over already dubious prospects for turning Pakistan into a major transit route for getting Mideast gas to India (WGI Jan.15,p5). Iran and...

ENI gets Italgas.
January 29, 2003... ENI now owns over 98% of Italy's largest gas distributor, Italgas. The takeover should enable ENI to integrate production, supply, and local networks more tightly, while leaving open the possibility of a gradual sell-down of its 60% stake in...

Norwegian outage.(Asgard gas field is offline)
January 29, 2003... Norway's third largest gas field, Asgard, is expected to be offline until mid-February due to technical problems. Last year, the field accounted for 11% of all Norwegian gas sales. Operator Statoil, which sells 60.5% of Asgard's output, is...

Shell gives up on California LNG plant.(Bechtel plans to continue project)
January 29, 2003... Bechtel is vowing to fight on, but plans for an enormous LNG receiving terminal and related power plant off northern California appear dead following a less-than-favorable environmental review and the subsequent withdrawal of project co-sponsor...

Market insight: Boston shivers. (Insight).(gas futures, price data)(Illustration)
January 29, 2003... An extended bout of frigid weather saw spot gas prices in the Northeast US briefly top $20 per million Btu late last week, and hold above $10/MMBtu early this week, while front-month futures for gas at Henry Hub in Louisiana hovered between $5...

It's crunch time for nuclear power across Europe. (Current).
January 29, 2003... Ever more European countries are moving to wind down reliance on nuclear power. Although environmental groups insist that the resulting shortfall in capacity can be made up by renewables, these are unlikely to fill the gap alone. Instead,...

Egypt eyes Suez Canal revenue, Mideast Gulf competition. (Horizon).(liquefied natural gas)
January 29, 2003... While Egypt works toward launching first deliveries of its own LNG late next year, government coffers are already benefiting from the rising tide of spot cargoes of LNG flowing from the Mideast Gulf via the Suez Canal to Europe and the US--as...