World Gas Intelligence articles from June 2003

World Gas Intelligence archives from June 2003

BP's flexi LNG strategy.
June 4, 2003... BP is willing to invest in greenfield LNG projects without first lining up long-term customers for the entire output of an initial full train, says BP Group Chief Executive John Browne. And Tokyo Electric Power Co. (Tepco) appears willing to...

Kogas, future unclear, seeks LNG deals.
June 4, 2003... Korea Gas Corp. (Kogas) needs the output from at least one liquefaction train with capacity of up to 5 million tons, starting in 2007, in order to meet growing demand for gas in South Korea, senior Kogas officials tell WGI. "We are in...

Russia warns about empty pipes to Turkey.
June 4, 2003... Russian Deputy Foreign Minister and presidential envoy for the Caspian Viktor Kalyuzhny says that it makes no sense to build a gas pipeline from the Shah Deniz field in Azerbaijan to Turkey. Speaking at a conference in Istanbul last week,...

AES Bahamas LNG gains, despite loss.
June 4, 2003... US utility Florida Power and Light last week subscribed to Williams' and Duke Energy's pipeline joint venture Gulfstream to secure 350 million cubic feet per day of firm capacity to carry domestic US gas to two power plant expansions, thwarting...

Oman LNG sold-out after BP deal.
June 4, 2003... A memorandum of understanding signed by BP this week with Oman LNG for up to 4 million tons of LNG (5.5 billion cubic meters of gas) over a six-year period beginning in 2004 leaves Oman's first two trains looking sold-out at last, just as work...

Mexican regulators mull offshore LNG.
June 4, 2003... Mexican regulatory agency Comision Reguladora de Energia (CRE) is preparing new regulations, for projected release in early August, covering offshore LNG regasification plants--roles that are almost certainly designed with Baja California in...

Rough UK market.(Brief Article)
June 4, 2003... The last week has provided further evidence of deteriorating system reliability in the UK (WGI May21,p6). Interconnector UK issued its third flow constraint in less than a week on Monday morning, after excessive amounts of solids were received...

ENI's Portugal stance.
June 4, 2003... Italy's ENI has given its firmest support yet to the Portuguese government's scheme to merge its national gas and electricity businesses, with Chief Executive Vittorio Mincato telling an ENI shareholder meeting on Friday that "the plan makes...

Market insight: US tight or tighter. (Insight).
June 4, 2003... The North American gas market is entering summer in a tight predicament: Inventories are chronically short of normal seasonal levels and US gas production, after falling steadily in 2002, shows few signs of a rebound. High prices are expected...

Environmental rules keep US burning costly gas--for now. (Current).
June 4, 2003... Sliding North American gas production, low inventories, high gas prices, and readily available coal and oil-fired generating capacity have created what would presumably be the ideal conditions for fuel-switching to help rebalance tight US gas...

Pricing key to gas-fired power in China, where coal reigns. (Horizon).
June 4, 2003... Electricity is at the core of China's bid to boost gas consumption by 60% between 2001 and 2005, to 40 billion cubic meters per year (3.9 billion cubic feet per day), and then to 100 Bcm by 2010. Infrastructure to distribute gas to industry and...

Aramco, Exxon part ways.
June 11, 2003... Last Thursday's delivery by Saudi Oil Minister Ali Naimi on his pledge to terminate negotiations with Exxon Mobil over the proposed $16 billion South Ghawar core gas venture may--or may not--have been the death knell for the country's much...

UK's Transco to sell regional networks.
June 11, 2003... Britain's energy regulator Ofgem last week sent its clearest signal yet that National Grid Transco (NGT) will be allowed to sell off some of its eight regional gas distribution networks--a right for which the company has been lobbying in recent...

Living with uncertainty in Indonesian LNG.
June 11, 2003... Ambiguity continues to characterize the division of responsibility for marketing LNG from Indonesia's existing and planning export facilities. Pertamina apparently remains in effective control of marketing, at least to core Japanese...

National incumbents become euro powers.
June 11, 2003... The gradual prying open of European Union (EU) gas and power markets in recent years has been the driving force behind a spate of mergers, acquisitions, and other investments that are gradually transforming the region's energy scene from a...

US turns sharply toward tight gas.
June 11, 2003... Faced with steep decline rates and a scarcity of drilling prospects in conventional gas fields, US producers are turning increasingly to 'tight' gas from low-permeability reservoirs. Already, gas from tight sands is contributing some 9 billion...

ENI's Libya speed-up.
June 11, 2003... Italy's ENI is well on course to bring its $4.6 billion West Libyan joint venture gas project on stream next year after all, highlighting Libya's resurgence as a source of gas for energy-thirsty Europe. It appeared late last year that first...

Partner for Marathon.(Brief Article)
June 11, 2003... Equatorial Guinea's state oil company GEPetrol aims to take a 25% stake in US Marathon's proposed $1 billion LNG project. the country's Secretary of State for Energy Gabriel Nguema Lima told WGI last week on the sidelines of a conference in...

Correction.(Correction Notice)
June 11, 2003... In the Jun. 4 issue, WGI incorrectly identified El Paso's original partner in a Baja California regasification terminal proposal. El Paso was a partner with ConocoPhillips, not Royal Dutch/Shell. It has since withdrawn from the project (WGI...

Qataris eye limited downstream role.
June 11, 2003... State Qatar Petroleum (QP) would like to move downstream in the LNG business, taking stakes in receiving terminals, possibly starting with a UK plant at an as yet undetermined site. But it will not be marketing gas directly in the UK. "The...

Market insight: cost-conscious Japan. (Insight).
June 11, 2003... The strong linkage between crude oil and LNG prices that has traditionally characterized Asian LNG markets is starting to fray, not just in China and India, but also in the region's core and most conservative market, Japan. With Indonesia,...

EU debates putting energy under financial trading rules. (Current).
June 11, 2003... A piece of non-energy legislation now winding its way through the European Parliament could transform European energy trading. As part of a review of financial trading rules under a new Investment Services Directive, the European Commission has...

Singing the Btu blues at US LNG import terminals. (Horizon).
June 11, 2003... As Dominion's 1 billion cubic foot per day (7.7 million ton per year) Cove Point, Maryland, LNG receiving terminal nears its Jul. 22 grand opening, equal 250 million cubic foot per day firm capacity holders Royal Dutch/Shell, BP, and Statoil...

Qatargas-3 targets US.
June 18, 2003... Tiny, gas-rich Qatar has once again upped the ante in its drive to become the world's leading LNG exporter within a decade or so--potential delays in start-up of deliveries to India's Petronet LNG notwithstanding (p2). The goal now is LNG...

LNG [liquified natural gas] flowing freely into US terminals.
June 18, 2003... Obstacles that have blocked full usage of existing US LNG import terminals and construction of new ones may be starting to fall away as acceptance spreads of the inadequacy of Noah American gas supplies (p8). The final countdown has begun...

Enel buys in Spain.(ENEL S.p.A.buys stake Union Fenosa S.A. renewable energy unit)(United States liquefied natural gas terminal report)
June 18, 2003... Italy's Enel has agreed to buy an 80% stake in Union Fenosa's Spanish renewable energy unit for $211 million and to pay $188 million for a 50% stake in a 1,200 megawatt combined-cycle gas-fired power plant that Union Fenosa is building at Palos...

India threatens to take RasGas to court.
June 18, 2003... India is prepared to walk away from a long-term LNG purchase agreement with Qatar, possibly laying the groundwork for a protracted legal dispute, if RasGas does not amend an existing contract with the state Petronet LNG importing consortium to...

Iran challenges Qatar for gulf markets.
June 18, 2003... As it strives to develop new markets for its plentiful gas, Iran is zooming in on neighbors Turkey, Kuwait, and even the UAE, heretofore thought of as largely Qatari turf. Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh tells WGI that Iran is "pressing" to...

Bayu-Undan proceeds, sunrise still stalled.(ConocoPhillips project)
June 18, 2003... ConocoPhillips has just launched its Bayu-Undan LNG project, based on reserves in the East Timorese and Australian Timor Sea Joint Petroleum Development, with its entire output pre-sold to Japanese utilities--at a time when major LNG players...

Gazprom LNG plans.(Gazprom Russian Joint Stock Co. plans to export liquefied natural gas)
June 18, 2003... Gazprom is taking concrete steps to turn its talk of becoming an LNG exporter into reality. The company's executive board is expected at a Jun. 18 meeting to approve the concept of LNG production, transportation, and marketing. The board...

Dutch split delayed.(Gasunie Trade and Supply restructuring)
June 18, 2003... Gasunie Trade and Supply will not be divided into rival firms owned by Exxon Mobil and Royal Dutch/Shell before 2005, according to a letter to Parliament last week from Dutch Economy Minister Laurens-Jan Brinkhorst and Finance Minister Gerrit...

Trinidad Train 4 ready for take-off.(Company Profile)
June 18, 2003... Atlantic LNG's shareholders have come to a preliminary agreement with the Trinidad government that should put the long-awaited Train 4 at Point Fortin on track lot completion by end-2005. This follows over a year of negotiation, in which the...

Market insight: UK imbalances. (Insight).(Industry Overview)
June 18, 2003... This summer is providing ample demonstration of the precarious state of Britain's energy supply systems at a time when domestic gas production is sliding toward the net-import position. National Grid Transco, operator of Britain's national...

EU candidates in Southeast Europe start privatizing power. (Current).
June 18, 2003... Even as a first group of new European Union candidate states is making final preparations for joining in 2004--including putting finishing touches on energy market liberalization and privatization programs--the next band of potential members...

US gas demand down, prices appear more resilient. (Horizon).(Industry Overview)
June 18, 2003... Gas prices up around $6 per million Btu through much of the spring and early summer have at last had the expected effect of killing off enough US demand to allow rapid rebuilding of depleted inventories, bringing prices off a high boil (WGI...

Petronas redefines baseload.
June 25, 2003... "It will still require a baseload of long-term contracts to make an LNG project fly," Petronas Chief Executive Hassan Marican told Energy Intelligence in an exclusive interview last week. But the Malaysian state company seems to be redefining...

North America LNG gains momentum.(Brief Article)
June 25, 2003... Planning for North American LNG receiving terminals looks to be gaining momentum, starting with last week's revelation that there could be not just one, but two at Sabine Pass, about 80 miles east of Houston on the Texas and Louisiana border....

BG fits in pieces for trans-atlantic LNG.
June 25, 2003... The BG-led Egyptian LNG (ELNG) project is fitting together more pieces of a jigsaw that shows the UK-based company firmly on course to become one of the leading suppliers of LNG on both sides of the Atlantic within four years. After...

PNG gas project may be on last legs.
June 25, 2003... The Exxon Mobil-led Papua New Guinea (PNG) project to pipe gas to Australia has hit the skids. If ongoing negotiations with potential customers Comalco and Energex fail, the project is likely to die. And sources say that prospects with these...

Russia's Baltic pipe, Blue Steam moves.(Brief Article)
June 25, 2003... Russia looks to be charging ahead with efforts to fund and organize a direct pipe link under the Baltic to continental Western Europe and on to the UK, even as Gazprom concedes that some accommodation needs to be made on Turkey's Blue Stream...

Gas Natural targets Caribbean, Greece.
June 25, 2003... Spain's once home-hound incumbent Gas Natural (GN) is looking to expand its LNG business into Puerto Rico and into Greece, where it could also be called on to develop a corridor for Caspian gas into Western Europe. GN this week agreed to...

Statoil's Algeria aims.
June 25, 2003... Norway's Statoil has moved to bolster its position in the European gas market and reduce its dependency on Norwegian reserves with the $740 million purchase of roughly half of BP's interests in the In Salah and In Amenas gas and condensate...

Summer UK rationing.(Brief Article)
June 25, 2003... Transco, Britain's gas grid, last week ordered the first-ever summertime interruptions to gas supplies, due to production problems at three of the largest North Sea fields, while warning that more interruptions are likely in the weeks ahead....

Total protests Pertamina's Tangguh focus.
June 25, 2003... French Total is vociferously objecting to a plan by Malaysian state Pertamina to split Bontang LNG contracts when they come up for renewal between the existing Bontang liquefaction facility and the planned new Tangguh LNG project. Total is the...

Market insight: LNG netback indications. (Insight).(Industry Overview)
June 25, 2003... The volume of LNG available for trade under short-term contracts--as well as the number of ships available to carry it--is still small, but it's growing, as buyers insist on greater flexibility in purchasing contracts and sellers seek more...

European power exchanges experience mixed fortunes. (Current).(Industry Overview)
June 25, 2003... From one perspective, power trading appears to have taken Europe by storm in recent years, with new exchanges springing up across the continent. However, the recent mixed fortunes of these exchanges illustrates just what early days it still is...

ENI grapples with Italy's looming import capacity glut. (Horizon).(Brief Article)
June 25, 2003... A pipeline from Greece into Italy may not be such a brilliant idea for dealing with Turkey's current gas glut (p3). Italy already looks to be developing a significant glut of its own--if not of contracted gas, at least of import capacity (WGI...