World Gas Intelligence articles from May 2003

World Gas Intelligence archives from May 2003

RasGas, Petronet face off.(liquefied natural gas contracts)
May 7, 2003... Indian state-controlled Petronet LNG's problems in lining up domestic customers less than a year before first volumes are due under a 5 million ton per year contract with Qatar's RasGas has RasGas out looking for alternatives that don't require...

Ukraine, Ruhrgas eye role in Russian sales.(natural gas pipeline system, planned upgrade and consortium operation)
May 7, 2003... Working out a model for the proposed international consortium to upgrade and operate Ukraine's huge but creaky pipeline system is proving politically challenging--due not least to a Ukraine proposal to fundamentally alter Gazprom's role by...

Shell reshapes its European upstream.(Royal Dutch/Shell, restructuring)
May 7, 2003... Royal Dutch/Shell has launched a radical overhaul of its European upstream that will involve a 20% cut in its 5,450 workforce. The European restructuring is part of wider changes to Shell Exploration & Production, with each region targeted to...

Expanded pipe helps US rockies producers.(natural gas prices, pipelines; Rocky Mountain region, U.S.)
May 7, 2003... Gas prices in the US Rockies are expected to rise sharply in the coming months after trading for years at a steep discount to prices at Henry Hub, Louisiana, the key US pricing point. The savior for gas producers is last week's start-up of the...

Shell's Ireland setback.(Royal Dutch/Shell, planned gas field; Ireland)(Brief Article)
May 7, 2003... Royal Dutch/Shell has suffered a planning setback that could damage prospects for development of the Corrib gas field off the West Coast of Ireland. Planning authorities rejected the current development proposals from operator Enterprise Energy...

Kogas buys from Tiga.(Korea Gas Corp., liquefied natural gas contract with Petronas)(Brief Article)
May 7, 2003... Korea Gas Corp. (Kogas) is due later this week to sign the expected seven-year, 1.5 million-2 million ton per year LNG supply contract with Malaysia's Petronas, following a slight delay as each of the companies sought clarification on technical...

Endesa's Camisea win.(Etevensa, to supply electricity to ElectroPeru)(Brief Article)
May 7, 2003... Peru's Ministry of Mines and Energy on Tuesday named the Etevensa affiliate of Spanish power producer Endesa winner of a tender to supply electricity to ElectroPeru, from gas developed as part of the Camisea project. Endesa offered to...

Mideast powers up.(Brief Article)
May 7, 2003... Total and the Belgian Tractebel affiliate of French Suez have commissioned the Taweelah A-1 power and water desalination plant in Abu Dhabi, the emirate's second independent power project. The 1,430 megawatt Taweelah A-1 plant will meet...

Israeli indecision.(Israel Electric Co. )
May 7, 2003... After backtracking in early April from last September's decision to have an affiliate of state Israel Electric Co. (IEC) build Israel's $400 million gas grid, the Israeli government is once again without a firm policy on how its gas...

E.On, EdF popular.(Brief Article)
May 7, 2003... The future belongs to Electricite de France (EdF) and E.On, if a recent poll of senior European utility executives is any indication. When 107 senior executives in major energy utilities across 19 European countries were asked which firms they...

Conoco set to move into gas, big time.(Brief Article)
May 7, 2003... ConocoPhillips wants to change its mix of oil and gas reserves and production to 50-50 within 10 years, President and Chief Executive James Mulva said Tuesday at the company's first shareholders' meeting since last year's merger of Conoco and...

Market insight: spring in US prices. (Insight).
May 7, 2003... North American gas prices usually face seasonal weakness in the spring, as weather demand eases. This year, that factor is being kept in check by heavy buying to refill US storage inventories that are still near record lows. With summer just...

US regulators step back from single power market plan. (Current).
May 7, 2003... The US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has stepped well back from its earlier plan to create a single, nationwide, market-oriented electricity market that would take management of the grid out of state hands (WGI Jan. 1,p7). The...

Exxon effusive on strong new steels for pipelines, LNG. (Horizon).
May 7, 2003... Exxon Mobil isn't known for tooting its horn about much other than making money, but it has been chatty recently about two new grades of high-strength steel and their planned applications in gas pipes and for an innovative LNG process called...

Iranian LNG sales drive.
May 14, 2003... British Gas, Royal Dutch/Shell, and Reliance Industries are slugging it out for a 2.5 million-3 million ton per year LNG supply contract to National Thermal Power Corp. (NTPC) of India--having all come from the same corner: All three plan to...

New Trinidad LNG gets to US--somehow.
May 14, 2003... BG's recent announcement that Trinidad's Train 3 has gone into operation, months ahead of schedule, begs the question of when volumes from Train 2, which started up nearly nine months ago, will start moving into El Paso's Elba Island, Georgia,...

Dutch pipe tariffs.(Brief Article)
May 14, 2003... The latest annual survey comparing the tariffs of Gastransport Services (GTS), the pipeline arm of Dutch Gasunie, with those of its European peers found that GTS tariffs were always lower than those in Ireland, Spain, and Denmark, and usually...

BG takes Nigerian, marathon supplies.(Brief Article)
May 14, 2003... After a somewhat slow start in securing supplies for its Lake Charles, Louisiana, receiving terminal in the US, BG Group expects within months to firm up two deals that should substantially boost its long-term Atlantic Basin traded LNG volumes:...

Costs key to drilling rates in mature US.
May 14, 2003... The number of rigs drilling for gas in the US is finally starting to reflect high prices, rising by 44 since late April and 142 since the start of year. While high prices are no doubt a major incentive for producers to increase drilling...

Marathon gets Mexico permit, more needed.
May 14, 2003... Trying to catch up with Mexico's federal environmental agency, which has already given out two LNG-related permits, energy regulatory Comision Reguladora de Energia (CRE) last week issued the first permit for an LNG project--to Marathon for its...

Saudis try again.(Ali Naimi)
May 14, 2003... Ali Naimi, renowned for his determination to protect state Saudi Aramco's oil and gas patch from incursions by international oil companies, has not only won a third four-year term as Saudi oil minister, he's been made key negotiator for the...

GTL goes micro.(natural gas-to-liquids)
May 14, 2003... While Exxon Mobil, Royal Dutch/Shell, and South Africa's Sasol focus on development of mega 33,000-100,000 barrel per day natural gas-to-liquids (GTL) projects, a new joint venture of US oilfield equipment manufacturer FMC and UK technology...

Gazprom sends message with Kogas deal.(Brief Article)
May 14, 2003... Russia's Gazprom sent a strong signal that it is determined to be a major player in nascent Far East market for Russian gas by signing a five-year cooperation agreement with South Korean state Korea Gas Corp. (Kogas)--in the same week that the...

Market insight: Tokyo gas take-off. (Insight).
May 14, 2003... After languishing at under 3% in the fourth quarter of 2002, year-on-year growth in Japanese LNG imports shot up to 7.5% in the first quarter and 17% in March alone, as momentum built in the drive by Tokyo Electric Power Corp. (Tepco) and other...

Europe's cross-border bottlenecks hamper liberalization. (Current).
May 14, 2003... The slow pace of construction of cross-border electricity links is hampering the development of a single European power market, or so argue the European Commission in Brussels, national regulators, and power traders alike. For its part, the...

France's total: an LNG giant that may need to limber up. (Horizon).(Brief Article)
May 14, 2003... France's Total is among the world's largest LNG producers and marketers, thanks largely to its role as leading gas supplier to the world's largest LNG complex, at Bontang in Indonesia. It also has stakes in operative LNG projects in Qatar, Abu...

Shell's Sakhalin successes.
May 21, 2003... It's been a good week for the Royal Dutch/Shell-led Sakhalin-2 project on Russia's Pacific shelf. Not only did Tokyo Electric Power Co. (Tepco) join Tokyo Gas as a customer, but consortium members also received assurances from the Russian...

Guangdong LNG delays proliferate.
May 21, 2003... China's flagship LNG venture is going through a bad patch, as it struggles with the twin challenges of a lack of concrete wholesale and retail gas sales contracts and the side effects of severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars). The result...

Small US LNG player Cheniere thinks big.
May 21, 2003... Tiny Cheniere Energy's award this week of a front-end engineering design (Feed) contract to Kansas City-based Black & Veatch (B&V) could one day yield the two largest LNG terminals ever built in the US--each a merchant facility able to handle...

Ruhrgas ups foreign profit, Gazprom stake.
May 21, 2003... Germany's largest gas supplier, Ruhrgas, is not hiding its light under a basket just because it's now a division of compatriot power company E.On. In a full-fanfare public announcement of 2002 results on May 20, Ruhrgas Chief Executive...

Europe's powerful profit bonanza.(Industry Overview)
May 21, 2003... Thanks in pan to unusually cold winter weather, Europe's power generators have started out 2003 on a strong note. Profits are up sharply almost across the board, helping to dispel any lingering post-Enron gloom--but apparently not lining...

Mexican gas price changes on horizon.
May 21, 2003... Mexican gas pricing formulas are set for some changes this year that will tie end-user prices more closely to US market movements. For importers in the competitive gas distribution ,sector, the new prices may offer better margins and easier...

Japanese in Iran.
May 21, 2003... Building on wanner ties between Tokyo and Tehran, Japanese engineering companies are establishing a foothold in Iran's downstream gas sector. Last weekend, Japan's JGC and Toyo Engineering, in alliance with South Korea's Daelim and Iranian...

Long EU EdF inquiry.
May 21, 2003... The European Commission has granted France an extension, until the end of June, of its original early-May deadline for submitting comments to the formal investigation launched by the European Union last month into the unlimited state guarantees...

Gazprom scores again in Central Asia.
May 21, 2003... Gazprom scored two more successes last week in its campaign to direct currently bottled-up Central Asia gas flows into the Russian transportation system: long-term cooperation agreements with Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan (WGI Apr.16,p1). The...

Market insight: UK system unreliability. (Insight).(Industry Overview)
May 21, 2003... This spring has witnessed a succession of unplanned shutdowns lasting several days at large UK fields, each adding to spot-price volatility. The most recent was Elgin/Franklin. Last year, Britannia experienced lengthy interruptions. Are these...

Tokyo facing power cuts amid nuclear controversy. (Current).
May 21, 2003... Tokyo is preparing for blackouts and brownouts this summer, because of delays in granting clearance to Tokyo Electric Power Co. (Tepco) to restart nuclear reactors that were shut down last year in reaction to the scandal over falsification of...

LNG tanker fleet faces challenge of aging gracefully. (Horizon).
May 21, 2003... The uproar over the age of oil tankers and its implication for safety hasn't hit the LNG trade... yet. No doubt about it, though, LNG tankers are getting on in years. The oldest, the French-born Cinderella, has celebrated her 38th birthday....

Arun outage outlook.
May 28, 2003... The all-out offensive by the Indonesian military against separatists in Aceh province, on Sumatra, is turning into a nail-biting sequel to the violent outbreak that shut down production for five months in 2001 at the Exxon Mobil-operated fields...

Russia's slow reform strategy.
May 28, 2003... The Russian government last Thursday approved "as a whole" a draft of a long-term national energy strategy that calls for full free-market pricing of gas only after 2010 and lays out no clear plan for altering Gazprom's dominant role or...

Mitsubishi aims for US LNG terminal.
May 28, 2003... San Francisco may have turned up its nose at the prospect of feeding the state of California's growing appetite for gas by importing LNG into its own back yard, as proposed by Royal Dutch/Shell, but the city of Long Beach, near Los Angeles in...

German consolidation: the next wave.
May 28, 2003... Germany's top five gas merchants all increased sales volume in 2003, a year in which the country experienced its fourth warmest weather since 1900. The reason? Active acquisitions programs at home and abroad, the most aggressive being by RWE....

Kovykta gets go-ahead to export its gas.
May 28, 2003... BP, Tyumen Oil Co. (TNK), and other potential participants in the Kovykta gas project in East Siberia are trumpeting a victory, after the Russian Energy Ministry agreed earlier this month that part of the gas from the field should go for...

Iberdrola buys LNG.
May 28, 2003... Perhaps planning in advance for another bout of Atlantic-Pacific Basin competition for LNG, Spanish power producer Iberdrola took steps to ensure its own supply by signing a sale and purchase agreement with Oman LNG for 260,000 cubic meters of...

Namibia's Kudu move.(Brief Article)
May 28, 2003... The long-stalled development of Namibia's Kudu gas field could get the go-ahead before the end of this year, according to Energy Africa Managing Director Rhidwaan Gasant. It seems increasingly likely that the anchor customer will be an 800...

Omani power plants.(Brief Article)
May 28, 2003... Oman has tendered for investors to develop a new independent water and power project (IWPP) by 2006. The gas-powered facility, at Sohar on Oman's northern coast, is to have capacity to generate 500 megawatts of electricity and to desalinate 30...

Camisea gas pricing.(Brief Article)
May 28, 2003... With gas from Camisea, deep in the Amazon jungle, expected to arrive in Lima in August 2004, Peru's regulators are busy establishing the framework for gas contracts. Half of the projected 1.2 billion cubic feet per day of Camisea gas is to go...

No to EU stock rule.(Brief Article)
May 28, 2003... The European Union has, for now at least, have decided not to set minimum gas storage levels in order to boost security of supply. Member state energy ministers rejected a directive proposed last September that would oblige their countries...

Market insight: end-user eco-complexities. (Insight).
May 28, 2003... Recent eco-tax developments in Britain and Germany have wiped away much of the energy price transparency resulting from the euro's 2002 adoption by 12 of the 15 European Union members, by making it much more difficult to determine...

Brazil's latest ideas on saving for an unrainy day. (Current).
May 28, 2003... Faced with a huge overcapacity of low-cost hydropower, Brazil must sort out a way to build--and pay for--more expensive gas-fired plants, as an insurance policy against occasional drought and an outlet for gas that it has already agreed to buy...

Search begins in ernest for markets for GTL products. (Horizon).(Gas-to-liquids)
May 28, 2003... Gas-to-liquids (GTL) conversion technology is beginning to move out of its research and development phase and towards commercial implementation, with the first of several planned large-scale projects due to be fully operational by 2006,...

WGI supplement: European end-user prices.(Illustration)
May 28, 2003... WGI SUPPLEMENT: European End-User Prices (In Eurocents/kWh) Gas Prices: 100,000 cm/yr 1 Million cm/yr Typical High Low Typical High Low Belgium Apr. '03 ...

European end-user prices (in US dollars/MMBtu).(Illustration)
May 28, 2003... European End-User Prices (In US Dollars/MMBtu) Gas Prices: 100,000 cm/yr 1 Million cm/yr Typical High Low Typical High Low Belgium Apr. '03 7.52 ...