World Gas Intelligence articles from January 2005

World Gas Intelligence archives from January 2005

India's price clash.
January 5, 2005... Determined to buy LNG only on fixed-price terms despite a perceived shift in market power in favor of sellers, Indian buyers are refusing to link gas import prices to a basket of crude oils as demanded by Iran, Malaysia and Australia,...

US LNG imports up in 2004, still growing.
January 5, 2005... The US appetite for LNG remained healthy last year despite the buildup in domestic gas storage volumes, with 1.8 billion cubic feet per day, or a total of 653 Bcf (13.7 million tons), imported in 2004, according to WGI estimates. That's up more...

LNG terminal clash in Southwest Mexico.
January 5, 2005... Last month's controversial selection by Mexico's Federal Commission of Electricity (CFE) of Manzanillo as the site for a 500 million cubic foot per day (3.8 million ton per year) LNG terminal to provide gas for expansion of its nearby power...

First outlines of new Gazprom emerge.
January 5, 2005... While uncertainty and even mystery still surround many aspects of the strange saga of Russian state Gazprom's apparently foiled attempt to take over Yuganskneftegas (Yugansk), the largest subsidiary of the Yukos combine that was once Russia's...

Russian gas politicking with India, Iran.
January 5, 2005... Following a December visit by Russian President Vladimir Putin to India, state Oil & Natural Gas Corp. (ONGC) is confident of winning a stake in the massive Sakhalin-3 gas and oil development on Russia's Pacific Coast, due to be auctioned later...

LNG Japan eyes UK.
January 5, 2005... Calor Gas, a subsidiary of Dutch logistics group SHV, is working with "a number of organizations including LNG Japan" on a feasibility study into developing an LNG import facility at Calor's existing liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) terminal at...

West Africa pipe a go.
January 5, 2005... At the close of 2004, ChevronTexaco finally announced that, after ten long years, shareholders in the West African Gas Pipeline Co. (Wapco) had agreed to build the West African Gas Pipeline (WAGP). The estimated $590 million, 360 mile...

Building Brindisi LNG.
January 5, 2005... BG and Italy's electricity group Enel have jointly awarded an engineering contract to a consortium led by Edison-owned Tecuimont to build an LNG regasification plant and terminal at Brindisi in southeast Italy (WGI Aug. 18,p8). The 390...

Market insight: European pull, Asian push.(Insight)
January 5, 2005... European terminals are providing the highest netbacks to LNG exporters at the moment, on the back of bearish US gas prices. And demand from Asia is reportedly low. Netbacks from US terminals took a severe hit over the last month, as nearby...

Greenhouse gas reductions on the way in some US states.(Current)
January 5, 2005... With the European Union's mandatory carbon Emission Trading Scheme in effect as of Jan. 1 and the Kyoto Protocol on climate change due to come into official force on Feb. 16, even the US is being pulled into the effort to reduce greenhouse gas...

Cheniere explains strategy for cheap, flexible LNG services.(Horizon)
January 5, 2005... When Houston-based Cheniere Energy went public in 2001 with plans for three to four LNG receiving terminals on the US Gulf Coast, it became the first small independent proposing to develop, own and operate LNG import facilities. Skepticism was...

Iranian LNG breakthrough.
January 12, 2005... Iran's LNG industry may, indeed, be the first to be launched without a central role for a Western oil major, with Indian and Chinese customers joining Iranian state companies in the drivers' seat (WGI Dec.22,p8). While sponsored by the two...

Domestic gas shortfall looming in Oman.
January 12, 2005... Major enhanced oil recovery (EOR) projects scheduled in Oman to stabilize and grow oil output, a new LNG train due next year, and numerous industrial projects are creating "serious concerns about where the gas is going to come from," a...

Canada a plus again in US supply equation.
January 12, 2005... Canada -- where declining production has placed a constraint on expansion of the massive US market in recent years--is reemerging as a prolific positive influence on the supply portfolio of its southern neighbor, thanks to domestic upstream...

PetroChina scores with two pipelines.
January 12, 2005... PetroChina last month launched commercial operation of two new gas pipelines, the ambitious 4,000 kilometer West-to-East line and the 1,375 km Zhongwu line, for combined incremental capacity to bring some 15 billion cubic meters per year (1.45...

Gasunie sales surge, especially to France.
January 12, 2005... Western Europe's largest midstream gas supplier has achieved a double-digit increase in sales volume, thanks mainly to higher exports--but also its first slight rise in domestic sales since Dutch gas market liberalization in 2001. Dutch...

Chevron's LNG West.
January 12, 2005... The pieces of ChevronTexaco's Pacific Basin LNG strategy appear to be falling into place, albeit slowly and hesitantly. Last week, Mexico's Energy Regulatory Commission gave the official green light to the company's proposed import terminal...

Indian import pipe talk.
January 12, 2005... Although Iranian LNG is making even faster progress, prospects for gas flows from Iran to India via an on-land pipeline through Pakistan gained momentum last week, when India agreed to host an Iranian delegation on Feb. 14, on the eve of the...

Spanish rebalancing.
January 12, 2005... Spain's Gas Natural has confirmed that its 35-year-old, 2.9 million ton per year LNG import contract with Algerian state Sonatrach, equivalent to 4 billion cubic meters per year of gas, did lapse at end2004 (WGI Nov. 17,p6). This year GN...

Correction.(Correction Notice)
January 12, 2005... In the European Border Price Estimates table that ran in the Dec. 22 Market Insight section of WGI, five of the November 2004 averages on the bottom line of the right half of the table were incorrect (WGI Dec.22,p6). These estimates should have...

Market insight: US winter wavering.(Insight)
January 12, 2005... This week, US gas markets are witnessing upward shocks in spot and futures prices for February, as revised forecasts indicate that the coldest winter temperatures may still lie ahead--only days after the weight of near-record storage...

Power exchanges, contracts proliferate across Europe.(Current)
January 12, 2005... Europe, having already witnessed an upsurge in electricity exchange activity in the last few years involving both the establishment of new exchanges and the launch of new contracts by existing institutions, looks set for another bumper year in...

Another record for LNG shipping, as costs--and rates--fall.(Horizon)
January 12, 2005... The past year was another record-breaker for LNG shipping with 22 new deliveries--up from 15 in 2003--and as many as 70 new orders, more than four times the 2003 count. And 2005 looks set to match and possibly even outdo 2004, if not in orders,...

BG's take on Asia.
January 19, 2005... UK-based BG Group--the largest LNG supplier to the US market--is "in intense discussions with National Iranian Oil Corp. [NIOC] to take a stake in a liquefaction facility in Iran," BG Group Chief Executive Frank Chapman told the Petrotech 2005...

Why offshore terminals losing out in US.
January 19, 2005... Widespread skepticism greeted both Cheniere Energy's announcement four years ago that this upstream minnow intended to build multiple LNG receiving terminals on the US Gulf Coast and El Paso's unveiling of the Energy Bridge concept for onboard...

EU, Algeria detente on resale issues.
January 19, 2005... Signs have emerged of European Union (EU) and Algerian detente on gas contract issues, as companies on both sides of the Mediterranean press ahead with plans for Medgaz, Algeria's second subsea gas pipeline to Spain and the first to link it...

Still more LNG projects proposed in Nigeria.
January 19, 2005... Two new LNG projects in Nigeria have moved to the fore in recent days, but the net result is as much to add to the confusion as it is to clarify the situation. ExxonMobil announced Tuesday that it had signed a memorandum of understanding...

India progresses on Myanmar pipeline, too.
January 19, 2005... Just as prospects are brightening for gas to be piped to India from Iran via Pakistan, New Delhi has signed an initial agreement to pipe in gas from Myanmar via India's other Muslim neighbor, Bangladesh--providing still more competition for LNG...

Turkmens still angling for higher prices.
January 19, 2005... A gas-pricing dispute that arose between Turkmenistan and buyers Russia and Ukraine around the turn of the year highlights the tensions that rising, oil-linked international gas prices are generating in the former Soviet Union--especially in...

Freeport LNG a go.
January 19, 2005... Freeport LNG is set to become the first onshore import terminal to be built in the US in more than two decades (p1). Construction began Jan. 17, the company says, after it received its final permits early last week and awarded the engineering,...

Spanish gas growth.
January 19, 2005... Spain's gas market grew by 16% last year to 27.5 billion cubic meters (319.76 terawatt hours of gas), according to early estimates by Spanish gas association Sedigas this week. This matches South Korea and makes Spain yet again Western Europe's...

Slow Turkish tender.
January 19, 2005... Turkish state pipeline operator Botas has postponed the deadline for receiving bids for its gas release tender from Jan. 20 to Feb. 25 (WGI Nov. 10, p2). Botas says that it has pushed back the date because industry felt that it did not have...

Market insight: exit Asia, enter Spain.(Insight)
January 19, 2005... Following confirmed growth of an impressive 16% in imports in 2004, South Korea continues to hold back from new spot LNG purchases, as do Japanese buyers. This is opening the field for a surge in Spanish LNG shopping on the back of record...

Russia slows pace of reform in its electricity sector.(Current)
January 19, 2005... Plans to privatize Russia's power sector have been shelved for now, although restructuring of the country's once highly centralized electricity industry continues, and some further advances toward market liberalization are possible. ...

LNG, electricity to fuel UK gas demand growth--if it grows.(Horizon)
January 19, 2005... Electricity generation will be the driver that shifts UK gas demand into growth mode, after holding flat since 2000--if it shifts at all, that is. Two giant power projects alone may absorb 6.2 billion cubic meters (4.5 million tons) per year of...

A break for Bolivia?
January 26, 2005... Could Argentina's 10% per year decline in gas reserves and ensuing export cuts cement Bolivia's future as a gas supplier to neighbors, including even historic rival Chile, and to the Americas as a whole? It's still a long shot, but maybe--if...

Profit-sharing spat clouds Trinidad LNG.
January 26, 2005... The government of Trinidad and Tobago continues efforts to raise its international profile as a gas exporter--even as arrangements for further expansion of the Atlantic LNG (ALNG) facility remain muddy. An investment decision for ALNG's...

Indonesia favors gas at home over LNG.
January 26, 2005... Indonesia cemented its new orientation towards greater domestic utilization of gas at an industry conference in Jakarta last week, with clear support from new President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. Six pipeline projects worth a combined $2.9...

US to decide soon on seawater vaporization.
January 26, 2005... US regulators are expected to decide before mid-February whether to allow open-rack--also known as flow-through--vaporizers that use ocean water to reheat the gas at LNG offshore terminals, WGI has learned. Last October the US Coast Guard,...

Strategy behind BG's ELNG sale to Enel.
January 26, 2005... The binding sales and purchase agreement signed by BG Group this week to supply 2.4 million metric tons per year of LNG (3.2 billion cubic meters per year of gas) to Italian power giant Enel from 2008 at the Brindisi LNG terminal in southeast...

Exxon eyes China LNG.
January 26, 2005... North America and Europe are not the only regions where Exxon Mobil wants to establish LNG markets. The supermajor now has its sights set on the Hong Kong area of South China, where it already has large power generation holdings (WGI Oct.6,p2)....

Florida's gas doubts.
January 26, 2005... Florida, which three decades ago launched a concerted drive to get its power generators off the oil that fueled 55% of its capacity at the time of the 1973 oil crisis, is now worried about becoming too dependent on gas-fired generation--adding...

Canada's Arctic ace.
January 26, 2005... Is the time finally fight to exploit the gas resources known to be in Canada's high Arctic? The Canadian Energy Research Institute (CERI) believes that it may be, and that compressed natural gas (CNG) delivered into the Mackenzie pipeline would...

First loading at new US terminal set.
January 26, 2005... Excelerate Energy's first LNG cargo is coming from Malaysia, Excelerate Chief Executive Kathleen Eisbrenner tells WGI. The tanker Excelsior, with Energy Bridge regasification equipment onboard, is to pick up the Malaysian volumes as it...

Market insight: Egypt's late LNG debut.(Insight)
January 26, 2005... Egypt's first-ever LNG export cargo finally looks set to reach its destination this week. Carrying a reported 136,000 cubic meters of LNG belonging to Union Fenosa Gas, the Knutsen OAS-owned Cadiz Knutsen set sail from Damietta on Jan. 20 bound...

Leaders enter fray over Franco-Italian electricity relations.(Current)
January 26, 2005... Efforts have intensified to reach an accommodation on the vexed issue of Electricite de France's (EdF's) participation in the Italian power market, with the French and Italian prime ministers joining in at a summit this week. Although the...

Lacking their own gas marker, asians fear Henry Hub.(Horizon)
January 26, 2005... Asian LNG pricing is at a crossroads. In the absence of a credible regional benchmark--either in the form of a transparent market price for gas itself or even a homegrown crude oil marker--the world's biggest LNG buyers have historically paid...