World Gas Intelligence articles from November 2005

World Gas Intelligence archives from November 2005

Germany's LNG ideas.
November 2, 2005... LNG is coming to Germany--with the more or less explicit intent of diversifying the country's currently Russia-heavy supply base later this decade. Among the results could also be to bolster prospects both for an active regional LNG trade and...

Big impact from little Japan-Gorgon deal.
November 2, 2005... The heads of agreement signed by Chevron to sell 1.2 million tons per year of Gorgon LNG for 25 years to Tokyo Gas beginning in 2010 may be small, but it has the potential to change the dynamic of Australian LNG negotiations in several critical...

Too much LNG eyeing New England?
November 2, 2005... Power generator AES' announcement last month that it is considering a new LNG terminal on Brewster Island in Boston Harbor brought to 13 the number of active LNG proposals--including those in Canada's Atlantic provinces--targeting the...

Korea out of spot market--for now.
November 2, 2005... Assuming the winter isn't abnormally harsh and oil prices don't move back up into territory uncompetitive with gas for power generation--two fairly hefty assumptions--South Korea will not be out scrambling for supplies in already tight spot...

Pressures ease in Spanish, UK markets.
November 2, 2005... LNG imports weren't substantially affected by a Spanish fishermen's blockade in protest at rising diesel bills that closed half of the country's ports to all ships, including LNG tankers, last Monday to Thursday, Oct. 24-27. But spot...

Investor interest in LNG finds few outlets.
November 2, 2005... Like much of the global energy industry in this period of rising demand, security fears and high prices, companies with LNG operations are doing exceptionally well financially. This would be enough on its own to draw Wall Street's attention,...

Spain-France loop.
November 2, 2005... The first pipe to flow gas from Spain into France should be operating shortly. Total Executive Vice President Yves-Louis Darricarrere said early last week that the 500 million cubic meter per year (48 million cubic foot per day) Euskadour...

Market insight: US ups and downs.
November 2, 2005... Chalk it up to bad timing, but a last-minute surge in bullishness propped up the New York Mercantile Exchange's November gas futures contract for a $13.832 per million Btu settlement--ensuring another month of sky-high prices for many large...

Electricite de France gets private face, investment capital.(CURRENT)
November 2, 2005... The French government last week launched an initial public offering (IPO) that would privatize up to 15% of the equity of state Electricite de France (EdF). This follows hot on the heels of the sale of 22% of Gaz de France (GdF) in July (WGI...

Gas and power prices for major US and European hubs.(CURRENT)
November 2, 2005... Stanfield 10.20 Mid-Columbia 86.25 spark spread 14.19 Malin 10.23 COB 91.00 spark spread 19.41 Socal 10.26 Palo...

Algeria driving down bumpy road toward growth targets.(Horizon)
November 2, 2005... Algeria is full to bursting with gas development and export plans. Three separate new LNG projects are planned or under discussion. A landmark integrated gas-to-liquids (GTL) venture is well into the tendering process. And two new gas export...

Mexican LNG purchasing plan.
November 9, 2005... Mexico's Ministry of Energy is brokering an agreement between state oil company Pemex, state utility Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) and private companies that could lead to the formation of a part-state, part-private venture dedicated to...

Dow still seeking LNG supply for US.
November 9, 2005... When Dow Chemical in 2003 became the first US industrial gas consumer to commit to capacity in one of the new-generation US LNG receiving terminals, the company believed the ability to receive imports would be more critical than supply. ...

Dutch Petroplus thinks big on LNG.
November 9, 2005... If the global LNG industry manages to emerge from its current period of manic growth into a more measured phase, one name that might start popping up with greater frequency is Petroplus. The Netherlands-based company--largely known as an oil...

BG to extract more NGLs at Lake Charles.
November 9, 2005... The US cannot drill itself out of its gas supply shortage, says Betsy Spomer, vice president of business development for BG North America. At the same time, demand in the electricity-generation sector is fairly inelastic as the plants have to...

New import capacity helps calm UK trade.
November 9, 2005... A ray of light this week helped dissipate a bit of the palpable UK market nervousness at recent UK Meteorological Office warnings of a colder-than-average winter and associated concern that a supply shortage might cause a repeat of last March's...

Growing pains amid Spain's market boom.
November 9, 2005... Spain's gas market is still booming. Sales of 26 billion cubic meters (3.36 billion cubic feet per day or 274.8 ter-awatt hours) in the first nine months of 2005 were up 20% on the first nine months of last year and almost identical to...

Greek pipe progress.
November 9, 2005... Italy and Greece last week signed an intragovernmental agreement demonstrating political support for the construction of an 8 billion-10 billion cubic meter per year (770 million-970 million cubic foot per day) gas pipeline that would bring...

Italy's rising demand.
November 9, 2005... Italian gas consumption, as measured by total gas injected into the national gas network, reached 63.05 billion cubic meters (8.1 billion cubic feet per day) in the first nine months of 2005, up 6.2% or 3.68 Bcm from the same period last year,...

Market insight: Asian demand destruction.(Insight)(Industry Overview)
November 9, 2005... Royal Dutch Shell continues to run into a virtual brick wall in efforts to find sell the sendout from its 2.5 million ton per year LNG receiving terminal at Hazira in western India. Despite supply shortages and resulting delays in large power...

CCGT-long, gas-short US area fears run on heating oil.(Current)
November 9, 2005... So far this autumn, unseasonably warm weather in New England and other parts of the US Northeast has been a major factor in allowing US natural gas and heating oil markets to adapt to production and oil refining losses related to Hurricanes...

IEA pares demand outlook but still dubs gas "star fuel".(Horizon)
November 9, 2005... The International Energy Agency has upped its 25 year gas price forecast and, as a result, pared the world gas demand projection in its 629 page World Energy Outlook 2005just as IEA Executive Director Claude Mandil two weeks ago indicated it...

LNG vs. hot US gas plays.
November 16, 2005... Both Cheniere and, more recently, BG have suggested that LNG has for all practical purposes limitless potential in the US market because it is profitable at prices well below the marginal cost of US domestic production--and can therefore gain...

Decision near on East Siberian gas.
November 16, 2005... Gazprom has just three more weeks in which to decide which Russian gas reserves are going to become the main source of exports to Asia-Pacific markets, according to Russian Industry and Energy Minister Viktor Khristenko, who last week chaired a...

Indonesia gives Japan better terms.
November 16, 2005... Several Japanese gas and electric utilities are set to sign a heads of agreement extending for another 10 years arrangements for the supply of some 6 million tons per year of LNG from Indonesia's Bontang terminal in East Kalimantan that would...

Gazprom talks tariffs with neighbors.
November 16, 2005... Yet another attempt by Russia and Ukraine to negotiate revised terms for transiting Russian gas across Ukrainian territory has led nowhere. Ukraine, the main transit corridor for Russian and Central Asian gas exports to Europe, is resisting new...

India still seeking bargain gas imports.
November 16, 2005... Even while clinging to the conviction that buyers will regain the upper hand in global gas markets toward the turn of the decade, Indian importers continue a search for short-term deals, swaps or other cost-trimming arrangements to meet...

NLNG gas shortfalls.
November 16, 2005... The trickle of information out of Nigeria in recent months pointing to possible feedstock gas shortages for Trains 4 and 5, being commissioned this autumn by Nigeria LNG (NLNG), turned into a torrent this week. While the net result is...

WGI supplement: European end-user prices.
November 16, 2005... WGI SUPPLEMENT: European End-User Prices (In Eurocents/kWh) Gas Prices: 100,000 cm/yr Typical High Low Belgium Oct. '05 2.91 3.06...

E.On grows abroad.
November 16, 2005... Top German gas supplier E.On Ruhrgas sold 10.8 billion cubic meters (4.14 billion cubic feet per day or 113.8 terawatt hours) of gas in third quarter 2005, up 8% on the same period in 2004. Nine-month sales volumes also grew by 8%, to 45.25 Bcm...

Central America idea.
November 16, 2005... Eager to have the US-backed Free Trade Agreement of the Americas (FTAA) passed, Mexican President Vicente Fox, one of the few backers of the controversial agreement within the region, has resuscitated his own regional free trade package, the...

Cold warms UK price.
November 16, 2005... Gas prices in the UK have doubled in the past week, with day-ahead prices at the National Balancing Point (NBP) at around $13.75 per million Btu (79 pence per therm) Monday, versus $6.83/MMBtu a week earlier. The rally continued into Tuesday,...

Market insight: euro user prices up.(Insight)
November 16, 2005... Further increases in crude and oil product prices over the past three months again caused upward end-user price moves in Western Europe's main gas markets, as seen in assessments for October by Energy Advice for WGI (WGI Aug.31,p6). For...

IPE gas futures.(Insight)
November 16, 2005... IPE GAS FUTURES Contract Nov. 14 Week's Nov. 14 Month p/therm High/Low $/MMBtu Dec. '05 77.07 77.41/59.15 13.40 Jan. '06 83.09 ...

Nymex gas futures.(Insight)
November 16, 2005... NYMEX GAS FUTURES Contract Nov. 14 Week's Nov. 7 Month $/MMBtu High/Low $/MMBtu Dec. '05 11,607 12.06/11.00 11.873 Jan. '06 12.280...

Prices for feedstock and power station gas.(Insight)
November 16, 2005... PRICES FOR FEEDSTOCK AND POWER STATION GAS (In Eurocents/kWh) Oct.'05 Jul.'05 Oct.'04 Power Stations Belgium 1.87 1.63 1.30 Britain (DTI average) * 1.28 1.40...

Low supply, high demand tightens euro carbon market.(CURRENT)
November 16, 2005... Prices for carbon dioxide (C[O.sub.2]) emission rights in Europe are currently trading at a hefty 22.70 [euro] ($26.60) per metric ton or so and may be poised for a further spike due to unexpectedly strong demand and the possibility that fewer...

Banks develop taste for LNG trade--physical and financial.(Horizon)
November 16, 2005... Cheniere Energy's announcement last month that it is teaming up with Wall Street giant Morgan Stanley in an effort to procure LNG for its US Gulf Coast terminal projects is vague on the specifics of the trading relationship envisaged, but it...

RasGas marketing moves.
November 23, 2005... Twelve cargoes have been shipped from Qatar's RasGas Train 4 since end-August, mostly to long-term contract holders Petronet LNG of India and Korea Gas Corp. (Kogas). The rest were sold spot, RasGas Managing Director Alex Dodds told WGI on the...

US Gulf Coast LNG picture gains focus.
November 23, 2005... With the recent announcement of several potential new capacity agreements, the Gulf Coast LNG terminal picture appears to be slowly coming into focus--even as changing market conditions give rise to new business models. The latest was word...

Blue stream finally getting popular.
November 23, 2005... This month witnessed both the formal inauguration of the Blue Stream gas pipeline--some three years after its completion--by Russia's President Vladimir Putin and Turkish and Italian Prime Ministers Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Silvio Berlusconi,...

Korea gas market slow to liberalize.
November 23, 2005... Domestic gas market deregulation is stalled in South Korea as the supposedly all-powerful Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Economy (Mocie) struggles to convince the union at state Korea Gas Corp. (Kogas) that change is good. When Kogas'...

US gas, not LNG, may rescue Florida.
November 23, 2005... LNG had been touted to cover a significant portion of Florida's long-term gas requirements, but every attempt to site an LNG terminal that could serve the Peninsula State has so far gone for naught. Fortunately for Florida consumers, domestic...

Pakistan unfazed by Indian import doubts.
November 23, 2005... Even though prospects are dimming for exports of Iranian gas by 2009 to India--either via pipeline or as LNG--Pakistan is pushing ahead with plans for both pipeline gas and LNG imports from Iran and/or Qatar. At a meeting last week...

Next Gazprom cargo.
November 23, 2005... Gaz de France has agreed to a limited swap with Gazprom that will enable the Russian company to deliver its second LNG cargo into the US, most likely next month, GdF Senior Executive Vice President Jean-Marie Danger told the European Autumn Gas...

Market insight: UK prices high, pull low.(Insight)(Industry Overview)
November 23, 2005... UK spot gas prices soared to eight-month highs on icy weather this week, making it the world's most expensive market at about twice US prompt levels. Yet pipeline gas and LNG import capacity still isn't filling up. Instead, British...

Brussels frets as takeovers reshape Europe's markets.(Current)
November 23, 2005... Flush with cash from high gas and power prices and the sale of non-core assets, European utilities and energy companies have embarked on a flurry of merger and acquisition activity that is reshaping the Continent's power and gas markets (WGI...

Insiders explain gas supply problems at new NLNG trains.(Horizon)
November 23, 2005... Nigeria LNG has put a brave public face on renewed reports that gas feedstock shortages could delay the full-scale operation of new Trains 4 and 5 and prevent compliance with contractual obligations to customers next year. "Gas will be tight,"...

Qatargas outage drags on.
November 30, 2005... Outages at Qatargas' Train 1 that have reduced deliveries to Spain and possibly elsewhere since October could last well into December, WGI is told, adding to ongoing global LNG market tightness. Technical problems in Train 1 started in...

Turkmens want higher prices.
November 30, 2005... On the eve of 2006, Turkmenistan is making new attempts to press Ukraine and Russia to buy its natural gas at higher prices. Turkmen President Saparmurat Niyazov announced last week that the export price for Turkmen natural gas would rise...

Sakhalin LNG, pipeline pressures.
November 30, 2005... Exxon Mobil appears to be under increasing pressure to send gas from its Sakhalin-1 development on the Russian Pacific shelf for liquefying at the facilities being constructed by the competing Sakhalin--2 LNG project led by Royal Dutch...

UK asks EU to probe Spain, IUK.
November 30, 2005... Britain's energy market regulator Ofgem is asking the European Commission to investigate whether market arrangements are curtailing both pipeline gas and LNG imports into the UK, which has been the world's most expensive spot gas market for the...

Mackenzie pipe advances to next step.
November 30, 2005... Exxon Mobil's Canadian affiliate Imperial Oil said last week that the C$7 billion (US$6 billion) Mackenzie Valley natural gas pipeline is ready for the next stage of its development: a series of public hearings to discuss the environmental and...

Cove Point quality flare-up.
November 30, 2005... More than two years after the reopening of the Cove Point regasification facility in Maryland, the gas-quality dispute between terminal operator Dominion and Washington Gas & Light (WGL), the utility that serves the US capital, shows no sign of...

Gazprom profits soar.
November 30, 2005... Gazprom's net profits surged by almost 66% in the first half of 2005, mainly due to higher international and domestic gas prices. The Russian state-run monopoly reported a net profit of 153.99 billion rubles ($5.4 billion) in the six...

Algeria's ups and downs.
November 30, 2005... Algerian state Sonatrach's recently released 2004 Annual Report indicates that the impact of last year's Skikda LNG explosion was substantial (WGI Jan.21,p1). One result was to shift an even greater percentage of Algeria's growing gas output to...

IPE gas futures.(Insight)
November 30, 2005... IPE GAS FUTURES Contract Nov. 28 Week's Nov. 28 Month p/therm High/Low $/MMBtu Dec. '05 95.56 117.00/88.00 16.54 Jan. '06 97.98 120.00/92.00 16.96...

Nymex gas futures.(Insight)
November 30, 2005... NYMEX GAS FUTURES Contract Nov. 28 Week's Nov. 21 Month $/MMBtu High/Low $/MMBtu Jan. '06 11.634 12.25/11.21 11.870 Feb. 11.739 12.30/11.33 ...

Comparison of LNG exporter netbacks at receiving terminals worldwide.(Insight)
November 30, 2005... COMPARISON OF LNG EXPORTER NETBACKS AT RECEIVING TERMINALS WORLDWIDE (Netbacks US/ US/ in $/MMBtu) Lake Charles Elba Island Exporters Nov.28 Oct.24 Nov.28 Oct.24 ...

Market insight: UK now spot LNG magnet.(Insight)(Industry Overview)
November 30, 2005... After a gap of almost two months, the fourth cargo this year into the UK's new Grain LNG terminal near London arrived Thursday. Algerian state Sonatrach landed the cargo on November 24 aboard the Golar Winter, on charter from shipowner...

Call issued for halt to baseload gas-fired generation in US.(CURRENT)
November 30, 2005... In a potent flashback to the 1970s, a US consulting group is grabbing the limelight with a report arguing that gas no longer makes sense for North America's electric utilities, which are said to have shot themselves in the foot by seizing hold...

Norway facing Arctic Pipe or LNG choice for Far North.(Horizon)
November 30, 2005... Norway's gas pipeline network could extend to the Barents Sea by 2020, much further north than it does today, presenting Oslo with some major development decisions over the coming years. Those decisions will largely determine how firmly Norway...