World Gas Intelligence articles from July 2006

World Gas Intelligence archives from July 2006

Gazprom's Siberian surprise.
July 5, 2006... Gazprom has forged a partnership to develop the mammoth Beregovoye gas field in Western Siberia with Russian producer and gas trader Itera, just as the latter has tightened links with an Indian investor, in a relationship that should directly...

VNG extends Russian deal to 2030.
July 5, 2006... A major Russian gas supply deal to end-2030 has been signed with German distributor Verbundnetz Gas (VNG), but it does not finalize annual volumes or say if the subsea North European Gas Pipeline (NEGP), planned for completion in 2010, will be...

India's Gail aims to go global.
July 5, 2006... Gail India plans to transform itself from a traditional state gas transmission monopoly into an integrated oil and gas group expanding into LNG, Chairman Proshanto Banerjee has told WGI. Banerjee, likely to retire later this year unless...

Thailand turns to LNG ... from Iran.
July 5, 2006... Thailand's oil and gas conglomerate PTT has made its first move into the LNG market with a preliminary agreement with National Iranian Oil Co. (NIOC) to buy 3 million tons per year from Iran's Pars LNG project starting 2011. Concern is...

Bolivia secures higher price.
July 5, 2006... Bolivia's efforts at trying to secure higher prices on its gas sales are starting to bear fruit. Starting July 15 and until December, Argentina has agreed to raise the price it pays for Bolivian gas by 45% to $5 per million Btu, from the...

Libya adjusts to gas exports.
July 5, 2006... Apart from exports through the Greenstream pipeline to Italy via Sicily, which project-backer Eni says have reached the targeted plateau rate of 8 billion cubic meters per year (773 MMcf/d), Libyan gas for now remains mostly a story of...

BP's Algerian launch.
July 5, 2006... BP last month started producing gas at its major In Amenas complex with partners state Sonatrach and Norway's Statoil. Not content together to dominate future Algerian gas output growth, the three companies each have hectic exploration programs...

Petronas buoyed by LNG growth.
July 5, 2006... Higher LNG exports and domestic gas sales helped Malaysian state Petronas achieve record overall results. For the year ending March 2006, group profits were up 23% year-on-year to a record $11.6 billion, and revenue also 23% higher at $44.3...

Market insight: US volumes puzzle traders.(Insight)
July 5, 2006... This bid week proved to be an active one for physical gas traders, and most noticeable to market participants were the larger-than-average volumes that were traded, many of them tied to indexes, that were themselves set low by recent standards....

Duke diverges North American gas, power businesses.(CURRENT)
July 5, 2006... Duke Energy's announcement last week that it was restructuring into two "pure-play" entities also marks what may be the last page in the final chapter of the now-discredited business model called "convergence." The convergence model...

Once-dominant majors take backseat in European Gas.
July 5, 2006... A decade ago, the international oil majors dominated the Northwest European gas industry. In the UK, Europe's one decontrolled gas market at that point, the majors controlled most upstream production and were starting to build marketing...

Woodside's big Pluto push.
July 12, 2006... Woodside's Pluto LNG project is likely to be the next project after North West Shelf and Bayu Undan-based Darwin LNG to start exporting LNG from Australia, sneaking ahead of earlier-anticipated projects targeting the 2010-12 completion window,...

Wild summer LNG shipping dynamics.
July 12, 2006... The LNG shipping scene has been relatively chaotic so far this summer. Vessels have been diverted from their regular Atlantic Basin courses to make deliveries to Asia, Spanish terminals have seen long delays due to poor programming, and...

Nuclear, renewables top UK policy.
July 12, 2006... The UK this week released its second energy policy review in three years--prompted by high oil and gas prices and increasing concern about security of supply in the wake of the UK's recent shift from net gas exporter to net gas importer status....

Pause may follow new Dutch gas code.
July 12, 2006... The collapse of the Dutch government last week, with elections called for Nov. 22, could slow moves to unbundled regional energy firms in the Netherlands, but new rules on gas balancing and quality finally took effect last week after a...

Canaport central to Repsol's LNG plans.
July 12, 2006... With rising global gas prices and continuing uncertainty in its Latin American operations, Spain's Repsol YPF is betting big on LNG, particularly in the US. Already the third-largest LNG trader in the world, Repsol is aiming to forge an...

Signs of G8 warming.
July 12, 2006... Signs of possible accommodation on energy issues have begun to emerge ahead of the G8 summit due to take place in St. Petersburg Jul. 15-17. This follows weeks of increasingly hostile pronouncements, particularly on gas-related issues, from...

Iran, Armenia triangle.
July 12, 2006... Russia's Gazprom is eying the acquisition of a pipeline that would supply Iranian gas to Armenia, Russia's only ally in the Caucasus. According to Gazprom Deputy Chief Executive Alexander Ryazanov, the Russian gas monopoly will acquire an...

New player joins LNG game at Bear Head.
July 12, 2006... Bear Head LNG in Nova Scotia. Canada. received what could prove to be a breath of new life earlier this week when a Paris-based group of international investors purchased the receiving terminal project from US Anadarko. which stopped...

Asian buying party.(MARKET INSIGHT)
July 12, 2006... Heavy spot purchasing through spring and early summer left inventory levels in Japan and other Asian importing countries high, Asian traders say, and demand is expected to soften over the height of summer as a result--although a recent sharp...

Turkey eyes nuclear power to reduce reliance on gas.(Current)
July 12, 2006... The UK isn't the only country aiming for a controversial shift to nuclear energy in a climate of sustained high oil and gas prices (p2): Turkey now appears determined to make good on plans announced in mid-2004 to build up to three nuclear...

Convergence and divergence among US, European utilities.(Horizon)
July 12, 2006... The wave of mergers and acquisitions that reshuffled the North American electric utility and gas pipeline deck during the 1990s failed to reshape the industry as envisioned when the state-by-state march toward retail deregulation began. First,...

Japan's Qatar, Oman mysteries.
July 19, 2006... The unusually high volume of LNG imported into Japan from Qatar so far this year could become a regular thing, market sources suggest, and with it, relatively stiff average prices for Qatari supply. This is in stark contrast to a plunge in...

US experiencing hot LNG Summer.
July 19, 2006... Second-quarter LNG imports to the US reached their highest volume ever this year, according to preliminary estimates. The US took in some 2 billion cubic feet per day (3.8 million tons), up more than 15% over year-earlier levels and one-third...

Indonesia pipe may starve Bontang more.
July 19, 2006... LNG supply from Indonesia could be poised for even faster decline around the turn of the decade, following Jakarta's award of a $1.26 billion contract to build a 1 billion cubic foot per day gas pipeline from fields in East Kalimantan to...

Yemen LNG on track, more gas sought.
July 19, 2006... Signaling the new importance assigned to gas in planning for Yemen's future as oil output dips below 380,000 barrels per day, Yemeni authorities are now working to revise the country's production sharing contract to include a gas clause. ...

Mexico's LNG debut.
July 19, 2006... Mexico looks set to receive its first LNG ever within the next few weeks, in the form of a commissioning cargo for the Royal Dutch Shell-operated Altamira receiving terminal, on the Yucatan peninsula off the Gulf of Mexico. The cargo is...

Tight Boston LNG race.
July 19, 2006... Excelerate Energy's proposed Northeast Gateway LNG terminal 13 miles off the coast of Gloucester, Massachusetts won initial approval of its draft environmental impact report from the state this week. Caveats were attached, and federal...

Brazil eyes alternatives.
July 19, 2006... Russia's Gazprom is mulling entry into the heretofore quixotic-appearing effort to build a giant gas pipeline traversing South America, a move that could turn the project into a more realistic possibility. Brazil's state controlled Petrobras...

Gazprom-E.On deal political, preliminary.
July 19, 2006... On the surface, the "basic" or "'framework agreement" announced by Russia's Gazprom and Germany's E.On during the G8 summit in St. Petersburg ends months of apparent standoff between the two by giving E.On its long-expected stake of 25% minus...

Market insight: Europe's divergent prices.(Insight)
July 19, 2006... Long-term contract prices for gas into Europe took another quarterly step up this month, of roughly 5%, increasing pressure on regional buyers to maximize purchases on the currently cheaper spot LNG and UK markets. That may be prompting some...

Make-or-break at hand for Europe's carbon emission mart.(CURRENT)
July 19, 2006... The next few months could be make-or-break for Europe's carbon market, as Brussels seeks to set limits for carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in the second, 2009-12 phase of the cap-and-trade scheme that are low enough to ensure a high enough...

Promise, pitfalls both abound for Canadian LNG terminals.(Horizon)
July 19, 2006... Just when prospects for LNG on Canada's East Coast appeared to be on the wane, with only one of several announced projects proceeding with construction and confident of supply, the industry has gotten a boost from the federal government and...

India, Russia energy axis?
July 26, 2006... India is hoping to use a combination of gas swaps and political persuasion to obtain long-term LNG supply from Russia and possibly Middle East suppliers. On his visit to the G8 summit in Russia this month, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan...

Alaska pipeline runs into big trouble.
July 26, 2006... An agreement between the state of Alaska and the major North Slope oil producers that appeared to have cleared the way for BP, ConocoPhillips and Exxon Mobil to build a gas pipeline to Canada and the US lower 48 states looks to be unraveling...

India buys seven spot LNG cargoes.
July 26, 2006... India has imported seven spot LNG cargoes into two terminals since April at prices that are a multiple of the $2.53 per million Btu f.o.b, price that it pays Qatar's Rasgas for long-term supply, reflecting buoyant demand for gas in a thriving...

Gazprom scores with Kazakhs, not Turkmen.
July 26, 2006... Russia's Gazprom appears to have moved closer to its 'strategic aim of gaining more control over gas reserves in Central Asia with the signature of a declaration on long-term cooperation with Kazakhstan. However, Gazprom's campaign to pin down...

Nigeria's OK LNG "not before 2011".
July 26, 2006... Nigeria--and Chevron, for that matter--may be further from having multiple new LNG export projects than it appeared just a few months ago. As part of an announcement that the four partners in the planned Olokola LNG (OK LNG) venture in...

Algerian pushes, pulls.
July 26, 2006... Spain's Repsol YPF and Gas Natural are moving forward on the integrated LNG venture at Gassi Touil that they share with Algerian state Sonatrach, most recently by awarding open-book estimate contracts for upstream facilities to Japan's JGC and...

Oil and money 2006: the end of cheap oil: costs, consequences and opportunities.
July 26, 2006... Sep. 18-19, 2006, at the Hilton on Park Lane in London The 27th Annual Oil and Money conference will explore the costs and opportunities of the end of the era of cheap oil. Key decision makers from the global oil industry will debate such...

Spain price response.
July 26, 2006... Natural gas sales in Spain have continued to rise this year, although less sharply than in past years as high prices start to take their toll on demand growth. Spanish sales increased 7.3% year-on-year to 17.3 billion cubic meters (203.24...

GdF tries Mauritania.
July 26, 2006... For now, Gaz de France (GdF) appears to be one of few major upstream players in Mauritania keen to develop the country's gas reserves. Earlier this month, GdF signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Mauritanian government to carry...

Market insight: LNG heads east.(Insight)
July 26, 2006... With summer heading into the final stretch, the global LNG trade is tipped eastward. Demand is lagging in both Europe and the US, allowing Japan, South Korea and other Asian buyers including new entrant India to snap up spot cargoes at...

Heat wave afflicts generators on both sides of Atlantic.(CURRENT)
July 26, 2006... A trans-Atlantic heat wave that could be the harbinger of climate change to come is causing stress among system operators across both the US and Europe. So far Europe has experienced few, if any, of the brownouts that caused so much discomfort...

Italy's ten LNG projects: tough sailing even for frontrunners.(Horizon)
July 26, 2006... More Italian LNG receiving terminals are needed, a strategy paper by the country's Economic Development Ministry stated bluntly last month. Equally bluntly, the ministry noted that the first new terminal won't open before 2008. Some see that as...