World Gas Intelligence articles from March 2002

World Gas Intelligence archives from March 2002

Opec key to Nigerian gas.(Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas Co)(Brief Article)
March 6, 2002... Nigeria's improved adherence to the Opec quota system is putting its LNG expansion plans in jeopardy. Until there's a substantial rise in its 1.787 million barrel per day oil production quota, Nigeria is unlikely to get all of the...

Who took Enron's US gas, power business?(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
March 6, 2002... What happened to the billions of cubic feet of gas and millions of megawatt hours of electricity that Enron claimed to be trading each day before its spectacular collapse late last year? Those volumes seemed to have vanished along with the...

Austrians unite.(petroleum industry joint venture details)(Brief Article)
March 6, 2002... Inroads made by German rivals into the Austrian gas market have prompted a rethink by leading Austrian energy supplier OMV and five regional gas distributors: The six firms are forming a joint sales company to supply industrial and large...

Shell, Phillips fight over Timor LNG.(contract details)
March 6, 2002... Royal Dutch/Shell has managed to win over Australia's Woodside to the commercial terms it is proposing for development of the Greater Sunrise gas fields in the Timor Sea, using floating LNG technology (WGI Nov.28,p1). But US Phillips is...

Tractebel to distribute Camisea gas in Lima.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
March 6, 2002... French Suez-owned Tractebel is negotiating the final details for a 33-year concession to build and operate the first distribution network for gas produced at Peru's giant Camisea field. Final approval of the contract is expected within days....

Algeria plans LNG terminal for US sales.(liquefied natural gas)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
March 6, 2002... With Algeria's gas sales to Europe currently stalled by a dispute with the European Union over destination clauses, plans by state Sonatrach to target the US LNG market are taking shape. Speaking at a gas conference in Cairo last week, Omar...

Marathon eyes LNG partnership in Mexico.(liquefied natural gas)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
March 6, 2002... US Marathon is aiming to become a fully integrated gas company by building a $900 million regasification plant for imported LNG in combination with a power plant in Mexico's Baja California, servicing the domestic Mexican market and Southern...

Dongghi delays.(gas field in Indonesia)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
March 6, 2002... Development of Indonesia's newly discovered Dongghi gas fields on the island of Sulawesi, south of the Philippines, is still five to six years off, WGI is told. State Pertamina has yet to decide whether to invest in a greenfield LNG facility as...

Second E.On snub.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
March 6, 2002... Germany's Cartel Office has delivered its second negative ruling in six weeks on E.On's takeover plans for Ruhrgas, barely a fortnight after E.On asked the federal government to overturn the regulator's first such ruling (WGI Feb.27,p6). ...

No armistice seen in Europe's hub battle.(Eurohub, NWE-Hubco)(Brief Article)
March 6, 2002... The North West Europe hub steering committee, which first met in May 2001, last week agreed as expected "to suspend its activities whilst two hubs are developed independently" (WGI Jun.6,p4). However, trader members of the committee --...

Market insight: modest US rally. (Insight).(Editorial)(Statistical Data Included)
March 6, 2002... Stronger US economic data have given gas price bulls something on which to pin a rally, despite the persistence of balmy weather most of the time in most US gas-consuming regions. However, the abundance of gas in storage and strong incentives...

Spanish, Italian gas firms take power in stride. (Current).(gas firms sell electricity)(Brief Article)
March 6, 2002... In Europe, it isn't all a matter of cash-rich electricity producers such as Electricite de France (EdF) and Germany's E.On moving over into the gas business (WGI Feb.6,p7). In several countries -- most notably, perhaps, Spain and Italy --...

Getting a handle on Norway's new gas transport model. (Horizon).
March 6, 2002... Last year, Oslo overhauled its system for gas sales. This year, it aims to do the same for gas transport, with potentially major implications for where and how Norwegian gas might flow in the future. Abolition of the government-sanctioned...

Japan joins Asian LNG shakeup.(liquefied natural gas)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
March 13, 2002... Japan's two leading gas importers -- Tokyo Electric (Tepco) and Tokyo Gas -- have agreed in principle to renew their base-load contract with Malaysia LNG (MLNG) for 15 years from 2003 -- in the process extracting key concessions that carry a...

Qataris flexible on LNG -- up to a point.(liquefied natural gas)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
March 13, 2002... It may be a buyer's market for LNG these days, especially in Asia (p6). But at least one LNG producer, Qatar, is adamant that it's not selling its gas at just any price. "We're not desperate to sell our gas at any price, nor are we aiming...

Turkey-Greece link catches Iran's eye.(Iran's gas exports)
March 13, 2002... Iran, set to export 4 billion cubic meters (387 million cubic feet per day) of gas to Turkey this year and anxious to supply the Greek and wider European gas markets, is eyeing with interest advancing plans for a gas pipeline linking Turkey and...

Exxon chief outlines active gas strategy.(Lee Raymond)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
March 13, 2002... The Exxon Mobil tiger has been running on oil since John D. Rockefeller set up shop more than 100 years ago, but the tiger will find a lot more natural gas in its future -- in a number of forms. Gas produced from tight sands in the US lower...

Slow recovery in US industrial gas use.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
March 13, 2002... The US industrial gas sector has gone through a rough patch since prices surged 18 months ago. And while some signs point to a recovery in the US economy, the normal associated rebound in gas demand may not come as swiftly as many in the gas...

GN results indicate Spanish market strong.(Gas Natural)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
March 13, 2002... Spain is back on form as one of Europe's fastest growing gas markets, judging by surprisingly strong results from Gas Natural (GN). The dominant Spanish supplier's net earnings rose nearly 15% in 2001, despite a decline in prices, a...

Algeria sells to Spain.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
March 13, 2002... Iberdrola, Spain's second largest electric utility, agreed last week to buy 1 billion cubic meters per year of LNG from Algerian state Sonatrach for 15 years beginning this autumn. The two companies also signed a letter of intent to...

Angola LNG moves.(liquefied natural gas)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
March 13, 2002... Ambitious LNG development plans for Angola could move a stage closer to reality this week, with project driver ChevronTexaco expected to bring new partners on board and to outline a work program for the project. Both Chevron and...

Russia, Algeria talks.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
March 13, 2002... Russian Energy Minister Igor Yusufov has proposed setting up a working group composed of Russia, Algeria, and Norway to discuss gas supplies to Europe. The initiative was sounded out at Mar. 11 meeting of Yusufov with Algerian Energy Minister...

Market insight: Thai price demands. (Insight).(Brief Article)(Editorial)(Statistical Data Included)
March 13, 2002... LNG suppliers aren't the only ones under pressure to offer lower prices and more flexible terms in order to make gas more competitive in Asia's developing economies (p1). Thailand is pushing its largest gas producer, Unocal, for cheaper prices...

New micro distributed power craze sweeps Europe. (Current).(household hot water to generate electricity)(Editorial)(Brief Article)
March 13, 2002... The desperate search by European politicians for a means to simultaneously reduce dependence on nuclear power and meet greenhouse-gas reduction targets could prove a Godsend for a new distributed power generation technology that could beat fuel...

UK parliament pushes for strong nuclear, gas import policies. (Horizon).(thinktank PIU)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)(Column)
March 13, 2002... A UK government think-tank, known as PIU, just spent months on a policy review that essentially amounts to a politically popular call for more renewable power. But two parliamentary reports point to a continuing policy vacuum on two other,...

NLNG ups spot, term sales.(Nigeria LNG Ltd. forms contracts with Eni S.p.A., Gaz de France, Transgas)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
March 20, 2002... Nigeria LNG has added both spot and term sales to its contract portfolio recently. Short-term, the joint venture completed its first f.o.b. sale, for two spot cargoes that Gaz de France (GdF) picked up at Bonny Island, one in late January and...

Change hits Japanese gas, power at last.(energy deregulation, purchase contracts in Japan)(Brief Article)
March 20, 2002... Late 2001 and early 2002 may prove to be a watershed period for the deregulation of Japan's energy sector. Changes are at last appearing in the structure of the gas and power sectors and in gas and electricity prices, two years after the...

Gazprom hurting, despite export rise.(Gazprom Russian Joint Stock Co.'s output, financial data)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
March 20, 2002... Russia ramped up gas exports by nearly 5% year-on-year in January, to 13.4 billion cubic meters (15.2 billion cubic feet per day), on the back of the first gain in production in four years. Gazprom's January output was 92.61 Bcm (105 Bcf/d),...

Dolphin slips amid haggling over sales.(five international oil firms to bid for stake in Dolphin gas project)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
March 20, 2002... Several months behind schedule, the UAE Offsets Group (UOG) has set an Apr. 6 deadline for five international oil companies -- BP, Conoco, Exxon Mobil, Occidental, and Royal Dutch/Shell -- to submit bids for a stake of up to 24.5% in the...

Distributors, shippers suffer in Argentina.(gas distributors, transporters hurt by reversal of Argentina's open-market policy)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
March 20, 2002... Private companies that flocked into Argentina in the 1990s, attracted by liberalization of the country's gas sector, are now being forced to renegotiate long-term gas transportation and other operating contracts with the government. The...

Warning only from interconnector probe.(European Commission investigates operation of UK/Belgium gas interconnector)(Brief Article)
March 20, 2002... The European Commission has closed a yearlong probe into the operation of the UK/Belgium gas interconnector after finding no evidence of cartel-like behavior among companies that ship gas through the pipeline. But it did find "rigidities"...

Georgia opens door to Shah Deniz gas.(Georgian International Oil Corp. signs agreement for gas pipeline)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
March 20, 2002... Plans by a BP-led consortium to pipe gas from Azerbaijan via Georgia to Turkey moved a step closer with the signing by Georgia on Mar. 14 of the host government agreement for the Shah Deniz pipeline. "The agreement is a milestone that sets...

Pemex finds gas.(Petroleos Mexicanos)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
March 20, 2002... President of Mexican state Pemex Raul Munoz says that a new non-associated gas discovery at Pemex's Hap well in the southern Gulf of Campeche, together with two finds announced in January, now total slightly over one-quarter of the country's...

EdF scores in Italy.(Electricite de France part of consortium that acquires Eurogen from Enel S.p.A.)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
March 20, 2002... Following hot on the heels of last week's European Union Summit in Barcelona, a consortium that includes the increasingly controversial state Electricite de France (EdF) bought the 7,009 megawatt Italian Eurogen generation company from Enel...

New UK gas field.(Royal Dutch-Shell Group of Cos. given approval to develop Goldeneye gas-condensate field)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
March 20, 2002... The UK government has given the green light for a $425 million development of the Goldeneye gas-condensate field, originally considered marginal but now made commercial by cost-saving new technology, according to operator Royal Dutch/Shell. ...

Market insight: US advantage. (Insight).(natural gas supply and pricing)(Statistical Data Included)
March 20, 2002... Warm weather and last year's slide in oil prices brought natural gas prices crashing down this winter on both sides of the Atlantic. Of late, the US market has bounced back, while the UK and other Northwest European markets continue to drift....

UK aims for early lead in carbon emissions trading. (Current).(Brief Article)
March 20, 2002... The UK is set to take an early lead in the emerging carbon dioxide (C[O.sub.2]) emission market with a national trading scheme to be launched Apr. 2. The government is backing the scheme with financial incentives for participating companies, in...

Compromise sets Europe on course to faster liberalization. (Horizon).(deregulation of utilities)(Brief Article)
March 20, 2002... The stage has been set for a faster transformation of Europe's gas and power markets over the next few years, as increased competition and the creation of more physical links between national markets help forge a dynamic pan-European market...

Shell's NLNG endgame.(Brief Article)(Company Profile)
March 27, 2002... Nigeria LNG has formally committed itself to invest in the planned NLNG Plus expansion project, with the award of a $1.7 billion contract for engineering, procurement, and construction on Trains 4 and 5 to a consortium of France's...

Brazil kills gas-fired power expansion plan.(Brief Article)(Industry Overview)
March 27, 2002... Brazil may be giving up on efforts to switch a substantial portion of the country's electricity supply from hydro to gas -- bad news for prospective gas producers in Bolivia and other parts of South America. The government has put on hold...

Shell targets Tokyo for Sakhalin gas.(Royal Dutch-Shell Group of Cos.)(Tokyo Electric Power Company Inc.)(Tokyo Gas Company Ltd.)(Brief Article)(Company Profile)
March 27, 2002... Royal Dutch/Shell has targeted Japan's two top gas importers -- Tokyo Electric Power Co. (Tepco) and Tokyo Gas -- as the leading candidates to be first buyers of LNG from the Sakhalin-2 project that it is heading up on Russia's Pacific shelf....

Why Shell, Tokyo gas want marketing link.(Brief Article)(Company Profile)
March 27, 2002... Royal Dutch/Shell's expertise in financial transactions, particularly use of derivatives, is the attribute that won it a coveted partnership with Tokyo Gas in a joint venture to sell gas to large customers in and around Tokyo, according to some...

Egypt finding gas, building more pipes.(Brief Article)(Company Profile)
March 27, 2002... Germany's RWE-DEA has found more gas in the North Idku concession, offshore Egypt's Nile Delta, that it shares with BP. Gas flowed at a rate of 26.7 million cubic feet per day from the fourth well drilled in the concession since 1999. Two...

Norway's Snohvit LNG project on hold.(Brief Article)(Company Profile)
March 27, 2002... Norway's Statoil has put its Snohvit LNG project on hold until confusion clears over the acceptability under European law of the tax breaks granted to the scheme. The company claims that it needs final clarification from European and...

Spanish terminals.(Foster Wheeler USA Corp.)(Empresa Nacional del Gas S.A.)(Villar Mir)(Brief Article)(Company Profile)
March 27, 2002... Foster Wheeler has won a contract to provide detailed engineering and supervision of the $122 million expansion of two of Enagas's three LNG import terminals in Spain, at Cartagena and Huelva. At Huelva, the project will double both...

Cove point delays.(liquified natural gas terminal, Williams' Cove Point, Maryland)(Brief Article)(Company Profile)
March 27, 2002... The reopening of Williams' Cove Point, Maryland, LNG import terminal may be pushed back to 2003 by delays in obtaining regulatory approval, company officials confirm. That might be just as well for capacity holders BP, El Paso, and Royal...

Slovak SPP sold.(Slovensky Plynarensky Priemysel bought by Gazprom, Gaz de France Ruhrgas consortium)(Brief Article)(Company Profile)(Statistical Data Included)
March 27, 2002... The Slovak government has approved the sale of its 49% in gas pipeline and storage concern Slovensky Plynarensky Priemysel (SPP) to a consortium of Gazprom, Gaz de France (GdF), and Germany's Ruhrgas. "Slovakia is, after Ukraine, Europe's...

Oman LNG getting set to expand.(Brief Article)(Company Profile)
March 27, 2002... Oman LNG has completed a $1.3 billion refinancing package with 35 banks for its two-train, 6.6 million ton per year liquefaction plant, having said earlier that the package would run over 16.5 years and include a $500 million bond component....

Market insight: US spot LNG returns. (Insight).(liquefied natural gas market)(BG Group PLC)(Brief Article)(Company Profile)(Statistical Data Included)
March 27, 2002... As US gas prices collapsed last fall, so did spot LNG imports (WGI Jan.30,p6). Instead, more Atlantic Basin spot cargoes found their way to Europe (WGI Feb.6,p1). With the US now experiencing a gas-price rebound, while European prices head...

Outlook cloudy across Europe for spot LNG. (Insight).(Brief Article)(Industry Overview)(Statistical Data Included)
March 27, 2002... While the US appears ready to again receive spot LNG, the situation in Europe is less promising. Belgium's Zeebrugge LNG terminal has ample spare capacity. But at prevailing prices, Belgian incumbent Distrigas is unlikely to take in any spot...

Debate over California energy crisis cause goes on and on. (Current).(Brief Article)(Industry Overview)
March 27, 2002... Last winter's energy crisis in California will likely go down in history as a seminal event for energy deregulation, where the forces of the open market appeared to clash head-on with the public interest. Although a year has now passed, the...

European power, gas players outperform competitors. (Horizon).(Brief Article)(Industry Overview)(Statistical Data Included)
March 27, 2002... Enron's demise left many US investors convinced that relatively conservative, asset-heavy oil companies are a better bet than the made-over gas and power utilities that populate the previously high growth "merchant energy" sector. In fact,...