World Gas Intelligence articles from July 2003

World Gas Intelligence archives from July 2003

North Euro pipe possibilities.
July 2, 2003... Russian President Vladimir Putin and UK Prime Minister Tony Blair last week in London agreed to a memorandum of cooperation on building a North European Gas Pipeline (NEGP) aimed at bringing in Russian gas to help meet a projected UK shortfall....

Iranian LNG starts to look real.
July 2, 2003... Iran, home to the world's second-largest reserves of gas, has finally taken a first step toward moving its plans to become a world-class LNG exporter off the drawing board. State National Iranian Gas Export Co. (NIGEC) this week issued a...

Legal action looming over blue stream.
July 2, 2003... Although both parties still insist that they hope to resolve the issue through talks and most analysts still expect an out-of-court settlement, Turkey and Gazprom each have started the countdown for legal action in the ongoing dispute over...

Chinese pipeline progress and pitfalls.(Brief Article)
July 2, 2003... Construction of China's 4,200 kilometer West-to-East gas pipeline is proceeding at a rapid pace, although lead project sponsor PetroChina is still struggling to lock in buyers lot the gas and continues to bicker with its foreign partners over...

Environmental hit to Chevron Gorgon plan.
July 2, 2003... A potential second Australian LNG project, linked to the outer Northwest Shelf Gorgon reserves, received a major blow this week when key government agencies strongly recommended rejection of operator ChevronTexaco's bid to locate a liquefaction...

Conoco's LNG leap.(Brief Article)
July 2, 2003... LNG has never been a big business for ConocoPhillips or either of its predecessor companies, but that appears to be changing. The company recently took a 40% stake in the Deltana Platform LNG venture in Venezuela with ChevronTexaco. and reports...

Apache trades in US.(Brief Article)
July 2, 2003... The trend of US gas producers taking back control of their own sales operations continued last week, with Houston-based Apache announcing that it has cut out the middleman and is now marketing its own US gas production. Apache outsourced...

RWE's unifying plan.(Brief Article)
July 2, 2003... Germany's RWE has unveiled a new corporate structure that aims to integrate the various European energy businesses it has assembled through acquisition in recent years (WGI May28,p3). The number of RWE management companies is being reduced to...

LNG tanker feud.
July 2, 2003... A trade dispute between the European Union and South Korea sharpened on Jun. 25, when the EU Commission allowed temporary state subsidies--worth up to 6% of contract value--to be paid to European shipyards on new LNG tanker orders until Mar....

Join global energy leaders at oil & money.(Oil and Money 2003 conference)(Brief Article)
July 2, 2003... Shaping a Course for a Fragile World will be the theme of this year's Oil and Money 2003 conference, to take place at the Inter-Continental Hotel in London on Nov. 4-5. Confirmed speakers for this year's conference, sponsored jointly by...

Market insight: deflating US bubble. (Insight).(North American gas market)(Illustration)
July 2, 2003... Embarrassingly enough for officials belatedly calling for drastic action to restore balance, the North American gas market is starting to look more like a bursting bubble than a developing crisis. Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan's...

Italian power crisis a warning for capacity-short Europe. (Current).
July 2, 2003... While Europeans are well accustomed to following US trends in many economic and cultural spheres, the latest import--a California-style power crisis that hit Italy last week--is one that they had hoped would not cross the Atlantic. Some 6...

Early leaders emerge in race to build new US LNG ports. (Horizon).
July 2, 2003... The question these days seems to be not whether the US is a viable market for LNG but rather when, how, and from where more LNG can be delivered. Currently, around 20 proposals to enhance LNG receiving capacity through onshore, offshore, or...

Taipower picks CPC.
July 9, 2003... Taiwan Power Co. has chosen Chinese Petroleum Corp. (CPC), the island republic's sole LNG importer, as its contracted supplier of 1.7 million tons of LNG annually for 25 years starting 2008 to its giant Tatan power plant. State Taipower...

High-tech sale in UK.(Brief Article)
July 9, 2003... National Grid Transco (NGT) in the UK has put its technology arm Advantica up for sale, after saying three months ago that non-core assets would be divested (WGI Jun.11,p1). It says the sale is "at a very initial stage" but has instructed JP...

France to subsidize biggest LNG tanker.
July 9, 2003... Gaz de France (GdF) last week signed a letter of intent with Alstom for construction of the world's largest-ever LNG tanker, with 153,000 cubic meters of capacity, due for delivery in October 2005, plus an option for a second. Both would be...

Dutch Power Exchange goes for gas.(Brief Article)
July 9, 2003... Amsterdam Power Exchange has acquired internet-based gas exchange EnMO, further extending its reach into the UK where it also recently acquired local offshoot of Automatic Power Exchange (WGI Jun.25,p7). Financial details of the deal were not...

Egypt LNG projects make headway.
July 9, 2003... Egypt has made advances in its plans to become a leading LNG player, with two separate projects hitting important milestones last week. A Spanish-led LNG export venture at Damietta signed up two important Egyptian shareholders and restated...

Indonesia to sign third deal to Singapore.
July 9, 2003... Indonesia will sign a new gas deal with Singapore's Island Power in the next few weeks to supply around 105 million cubic feet per day of natural gas (1.1 billion cubic meters per year) for 15 years. A source from Island Power said the...

France and Iberia press for pipe links.
July 9, 2003... A joint declaration in support of two-way gas interconnections between France and the Iberian market was issued on Jul. 7 by the energy regulators of France, Portugal, and Spain. They said an increase in the existing 2.4 billion cubic meter...

UK to exempt LNG terminals, not hoarders.
July 9, 2003... The UK government and energy regulator Ofgem set out initial views on a new regulatory framework for new LNG import terminals and new gas pipelines into Britain, in order to improve security of supply (WGI Jun.25,p5) EU directives, agreed...

Policy sought for US price services.(Brief Article)
July 9, 2003... US gas industry representatives are pushing federal regulators to issue a policy statement outlining the new rules for the reporting of prices to index publishers and to include a "safe-harbor" provision protecting companies that report prices...

Total's challenging North Sea find.(Brief Article)
July 9, 2003... Total announced a "significant" central North Sea discovery last week at its West Franklin prospect, which it says could be rapidly tied to existing installations at its producing central North Sea Elgin/Franklin fields off Scotland if a...

Shah Deniz award.(Brief Article)
July 9, 2003... BP and its partners in the Shah Deniz gas field off Azerbaijan have awarded France's Technip-Coflexip a $300 million contract for the Stage 1 development of the field, the French company said this week. The contract includes the design,...

Iraqi Oil & Gas: a Bonanza in Waiting.(Brief Article)
July 9, 2003... What is the resource base, its future potential, and likely impact on the international energy business? Iraqi Oil & Gas: A Bonanza in Waiting is your guide to the current state and future prospects of Iraq's oil and gas industries. It is an...

Market insight: Japan's LNG hedging. (Insight).
July 9, 2003... Japan's deregulating gas and power markets are driving LNG importers to hedge their exposure to new price risks, spurring the creation of an increasingly liquid market in LNG derivatives. Hedging LNG imports is largely a matter of the...

US generating capacity soaring this year--then it stops. (Current).
July 9, 2003... The launch of new gas-fired power plants is set to peak in the US this year, with 58,000 megawatts due online, leaving most of the US awash in excess capacity and pressuring sparkspread margins for years to come. Capacity shot up by an...

Mexico to become US gateway for LNG from Pacific. (Horizon).
July 9, 2003... WGI's Horizon last week reviewed which LNG import terminal projects are proceeding in the US Gulf Coast and Bahamas projects. This week it's the turn of US West Coast and Mexican terminals, with a table below summarizing both articles. The...

Conoco's Qatari partnership.
July 16, 2003... ConocoPhillips has moved quickly to implement its recently enunciated strategic shift to natural gas as the base for fully half its business (WGI May7,p5). The Houston-based international oil company is taking a stake in one 7.5 million...

Kepco proposes LNG barter with Indonesia.
July 16, 2003... In what would be a first in Asia, state Korea Electric Power Corp. (Kepco) has proposed a barter plan to buy LNG from Indonesia in return for construction of a power plant. The proposal is designed to help address both power-sector financing...

LNG imports to US nearly double in Q2.
July 16, 2003... Surprising few industry watchers, US LNG import volumes during second-quarter 2003 look to have been nearly double those in the same period last year, and were also up sharply on this year's first quarter. A normal seasonal increase during the...

Gazprom struggling to save Blue Stream.
July 16, 2003... Russian gas monopoly Gazprom has failed yet again to resolve a price and volume dispute with Ankara, which has halted gas imports since March into Turkey via the $3.4 billion Blue Stream gas pipeline system extending under the Black Sea. ...

BG aims to maximize North Sea assets.
July 16, 2003... The UK's BG Group has in recent years been vigorously pursuing international growth, establishing a strong position on the global LNG stage (WGI Jun.25,p2). But this does not mean that the company has forgotten its roots in the UK gas business,...

New firms try to fill US merchant gap.
July 16, 2003... The US energy merchant sector may be poised for further evolution, as new, leaner energy service companies line up to fill the void created by recent and potential further merchant bankruptcies--including Mirant's slide into court-controlled...

PNG pipe lives again.
July 16, 2003... The Exxon Mobil-led Papua New Guinea (PNG) gas export venture, which has been struggling to sign up enough sales to justify construction of a 3,200 kilometer gas pipeline costing $3.5 billion, has secured a fourth customer--and may thus have...

E.On gets more time.(Brief Article)
July 16, 2003... Germany's economy ministry has given E.On six more months in which to sell stakes in Verbundnetz Gas (VNG) and EWE. Authoritative Munich-based daily newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung reported last week that a six-month extension has been...

Market insight: Belgian blips. (Insight).(natural gas)
July 16, 2003... Liquidity has steadily increased at Zeebrugge in Belgium, continental Europe's leading gas hub. But the hub remains vulnerable to supply and price blips when closure of the Interconnector halts UK gas flows, as happened for two months last...

Wind generation starts to blow rapidly into UK, US. (Current).
July 16, 2003... The UK has long languished at the bottom of the European renewable energy league table, but that looks set to change following calls from London's Department of Trade and Industry for bids to build a new generation of offshore wind farms that...

Qatar well on way to meeting ambitious LNG targets. (Horizon).(liquefied natural gas)
July 16, 2003... With the conclusion last week of a long-term sale to ConocoPhillips, state Qatar Petroleum (QP) added the US to an LNG destination roster that already boasts prospective deliveries to India, Taiwan, and Europe, on top of longstanding sales to...

LNG experiments in India.
July 23, 2003... India is fast turning into a laboratory for new LNG marketing concepts, with majors such as Royal Dutch/Shell and BG and domestic gas user National Thermal Power Corp. (NTPC) all testing out innovative concepts in project design, LNG sales, and...

Wintershall to enter Gazprom gas field.
July 23, 2003... Russian gas giant Gazprom last week established its first-ever joint venture with a German partner to produce gas inside Russia, with Wintershall at the Achimovsk deep geological layer of the massive Urengoi field. If an initial pilot succeeds,...

Financial issues still open at Angola LNG.
July 23, 2003... Key issues remain to be resolved as oil companies and state Sonangol brace for negotiations on the final investment decision for the long-delayed Angola LNG project--most notably the financial structure for the $5 billion scheme. Sonangol,...

Shell seeks shift in Mexico's LNG tender.
July 23, 2003... In another interesting bump on Mexico's long and windy road to establishing LNG receiving capacity, Royal Dutch/Shell Friday confirmed that the country's Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) has agreed to consider tinkering with the terms for a...

Saudis tender pieces of old gas initiative.
July 23, 2003... Following the collapse of the Saudi gas initiative last month, the oil ministry in Riyadh is proceeding with the division of the upstream from the downstream segments of the old integrated core projects and is tendering them separately to...

Indonesia signs pipeline gas deals.
July 23, 2003... Indonesia may have had more than its share of problems lately in selling LNG, but foreign operators in the country are doing just fine marketing pipeline gas. Over the weekend, ConocoPhillips, Amerada Hess, and Australia's Santos agreed in...

Austrian gas release.(Brief Article)
July 23, 2003... EconGas, the main marketer of gas to Austrian business clients since January 2003, and OMV-owned Central European Gas Hub have confirmed strong demand for gas in Austria's first-ever gas release program, conducted on Jul. 17 via the internet....

Depleting Dutch gas.
July 23, 2003... The Netherlands, Western Europe's second largest gas producer behind the UK, is fast running out of gas. A national geological study says that, based on known gas structures, only some 240 billion-490 billion cubic meters (8.5...

Freeport LNG trumpets tolling facility.
July 23, 2003... Freeport LNG, using proven technology and a fee-for-service business plan, believes its proposed 1.5 billion cubic loot per day (11.5 million ton per year) LNG import terminal at Freeport, Texas, stands a good chance of being the first such...

Market insight: Europe's LNG appeal.
July 23, 2003... With US gas prices falling and European electricity markets soaring amid hot, dry weather, Southern Europe--and Spain, in particular--is reemerging as the apparently most attractive market for incremental LNG from most Atlantic Basin and Middle...

European electricity markets sizzle in summer heat. (Current).
July 23, 2003... Power prices across Europe soared to unprecedented summer highs last week on the back of a heat wave that gripped the continent, and they look set for another week of exceptional strength in the face of forecasts for more hot weather to come....

Unocal chairman outlines company's Asia gas strategy. (Horizon).
July 23, 2003... Unocal's asset portfolio in Asia has shifted dramatically away from reliance on oil, to an increasing focus on gas. Its three core areas of Indonesia, Thailand, and Myanmar are all now dominantly gas plays, and its stakes in Vietnam and...

Shell's US Gulf terminal try.
July 30, 2003... Royal Dutch/Shell is poised to launch efforts to license and build an offshore LNG terminal in the US Gulf of Mexico that would equal in size the gas import terminals that other LNG majors currently are planning for the US market. It would...

Kogas ups expected winter spot LNG buy.
July 30, 2003... The approaching winter is shaping up as another season of intense international competition for still relatively sparsely available spot LNG cargoes. Not only has a hot, dry summer left Southern Europe hungry for additional gas, but South Korea...

Exxon, BG hone US LNG, pipeline plans.
July 30, 2003... Mere access to a US LNG receiving terminal is no longer adequate, if Exxon Mobil's proposed sites and BG Group's expansion plans are any indication. As marketing of LNG into the US grows in size and sophistication, terminal promoters are also...

Indonesia likely to land Korean, US sales.
July 30, 2003... Indonesian state Pertamina appears close to clinching two key LNG supply contracts for a total of around 7 million tons per year, to South Korea and the US. This could help Indonesia pull out of a cycle of failure in marketing planned output...

Georgia, Gazprom ink controversial accord.
July 30, 2003... Gazprom and the government of Georgia on Jul. 21 signed a 25-year strategic cooperation agreement that puts meat on the bare-bones accord concluded in May by Gazprom Chief Executive Alexei Miller and Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze (WGI...

More LNG for Boston?
July 30, 2003... Suez affiliate Tractebel's aging LNG receiving terminal at Everett, Massachusetts, near Boston, is about to get some in-state competition. Weaver's Cove Energy, the brainchild of New York-based LNG consultants Poten & Partners, is developing a...

Russia's slow reforms.
July 30, 2003... The Russian government has officially given up for the foreseeable future on the idea of breaking up Gazprom into competitive pans. Instead, says Deputy Economic Development and Trade Minister Andrei Sharonov, gas market restructuring will...

More Sakhalin-2 sales.(Brief Article)
July 30, 2003... The Royal Dutch/Shell-led Sakhalin-2 consortium last week signed its third contract to sell LNG to Japan, for 500,000 tons per year over 21 years to Kyushu Electric Power Co. The parties are aiming to sign a full sale and purchase agreement by...

German adjustments.
July 30, 2003... The European Union's executive Commission on Tuesday closed a probe into alleged anti-competitive behavior by north German gas firm BEB, after BEB agreed to introduce user-friendlier pricing for services, including entry-exit-based gas...

Market insight: Spain's tight capacity. (Insight).
July 30, 2003... Spanish gas grid owner Enagas this month published capacities available for booking through 2006 at its three LNG terminals and two main pipeline entry points, from France and North Africa. The bottom line is that there's not much to spare. ...

Electricite de France squares off against its vocal critics. (Current).
July 30, 2003... July has proved a difficult month for Electricite de France (EdF), with Chairman Francois Roussely facing criticism over the state power company's ambitious international investment strategy from right-wing politicians, who say that it paid far...

Two paths for nuclear power diverge across Atlantic. (Horizon).
July 30, 2003... The nuclear power industry is approaching a potential turning point on both sides of the Atlantic, but that's where the similarity ends. While it seems conceivable for the first time in decades that the US may embrace another generation of...