World Gas Intelligence articles from October 2005

World Gas Intelligence archives from October 2005

Spot LNG deserts Asia.
October 5, 2005... The tightness in spot LNG supply expected as a result of unplanned outages at four export projects over the last month is here (WGI Sep.28,p6). With the Lake Charles, Louisiana, terminal accepting its first cargo Tuesday since closing for...

The LNG Award 2005 goes to Cheniere.
October 5, 2005... US LNG receiving terminal developer Cheniere Energy has been selected as the company that made the greatest contribution to the development of the LNG industry in 2005, in a confidential peer selection process administered by World Gas...

Algeria opens up its growing gas industry.
October 5, 2005... The chief executive of Algerian state Sonatrach, Mohamed Meziane, last week spelled out the gas opportunities presented by his country's new hydrocarbon law--including Sonatrach's own reduced powers. Nonetheless, Sonatrach is retaining...

Troubled times in Turkmen gas patch.
October 5, 2005... Turkmenistan is living close to the edge. In the space of a few months, the autocratic President Saparmurad Niyazov has removed most of his officials that had any experience in dealing with international companies. Largely gone with them is the...

Gazprom signs transit deal with Uzbeks.
October 5, 2005... Russia's Gazprom last week signed a gas transit agreement with Uzbekistan, aiming at securing Central Asian gas flows, mainly from neighboring Turkmenistan, via the Central Asia-Center pipeline--the main route for delivering the region's gas to...

Italy taxing networks, cutting LNG tariffs.
October 5, 2005... Italian Finance Minister Giulio Tremonti proposed Tuesday a windfall tax on national energy networks that would raise an estimated 2.5 billion [euro] ($3 billion) over the three year 2006-08 period. The tax, included in annual budget...

Work under way at Canaport LNG site.
October 5, 2005... Just outside Saint John, New Brunswick, adjacent to Irving Oil's crude oil import terminal, crews are working apace to complete in advance of the approaching winter site preparation for what they hope will be Canada's first LNG receiving...

Correction.(Correction Notice)
October 5, 2005... The article in the Market Insight section of WGI's Sep. 28 issue incorrectly quoted John Barnett of Southern Union as saying that part of the reason why the Lake Charles, Louisiana LNG receiving terminal seemed to have escaped largely unscathed...

Disappearing Iranian LNG sales to India.
October 5, 2005... The deal signed by India in June for the purchase of 5 million tons per year of LNG for 25 years at what look increasingly like bargain basement prices was has been widely billed as a "final sale and purchase agreement." So how easily...

Market insight: US price damage.(Insight)
October 5, 2005... The $10-$15 per million Btu spot gas prices registered across the US in the wake of late September's Hurricane Rita--now widely viewed as more devastating for the gas industry than the earlier Hurricane Katrina that flooded New Orleans--will...

Nuclear to help save US utility serving hurricane alley.(CURRENT)
October 5, 2005... US electricity utility Entergy is charged with delivering electricity to customers in most of Louisiana and large sections of Texas, Mississippi and Arkansas. That put its service areas squarely in the path of both Hurricanes Katrina and Rita,...

Long-term Asian LNG confronts Henry Hub, price caps.(Horizon)
October 5, 2005... Currently at historic highs, the Henry Hub US gas price benchmark already effectively dominates spot trade in LNG around the world. "Everybody is short, and everybody is paying Henry Hub," is how one LNG trader described the current short-term...

Qatar upstream costs.
October 12, 2005... Rising upstream costs look increasingly to have been a critical factor--if not the decisive factor--behind Qatar's decision to impose a moratorium on new gas development projects requiring production beyond the 25 billion cubic feet per day...

Kazakhs eye gas exports to China.
October 12, 2005... Kazakhstan is beginning to see itself as a potential bridge for natural gas from Central Asia and Russia to move into the fast-growing Chinese market--just as the Russians themselves are exhibiting renewed interest in pipelines from further...

US Q3 LNG imports fall as prices soar.
October 12, 2005... US imports of LNG dropped sharply in the third quarter, even as Henry Hub benchmark prices were soaring from around $7.25 per million Btu in early July to over $12/MMBtu in September. A combination of strong European demand in July, outages at...

US demand wilting under price pressure.
October 12, 2005... Have Hurricanes Katrina and Rita driven North American gas prices so high that demand for the fuel will wither before LNG developers can build the export and import facilities needed to relieve the chronic supply pressure that these massive...

New gas year sees new Norwegian sales.
October 12, 2005... The Oct. 1 start of Europe's 2005-06 gas marketing year saw Norway's Statoil launch 11 billion cubic meters per year (1 billion cubic feet per day) of gas shipments under new and incremental contracts signed over a year ago on behalf of itself...

Chevron Baja Mexico terminal under fire.
October 12, 2005... Chevron's plans to build an LNG receiving terminal off Mexico's Baja California Peninsula near Tijuana could be delayed--although probably not derailed--by a request from an international panel that Mexico address complaints that it did not...

Long Beach advance.
October 12, 2005... The US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and the Port of Long Beach, California, last Friday published a joint draft environmental impact statement for the Sound Energy Solutions LNG receiving terminal at Long Beach, making the...

Poles seek LNG study.
October 12, 2005... With the center-right now poised to take over the government of Poland, state gas group PGNiG, still the country's dominant importer, has invited bids by Nov. 7 from companies interested in preparing a feasibility study for LNG imports into...

Market insight: Asia's spot squeeze.(Insight)
October 12, 2005... Restart of Train 4 at Australia's North West Shelf should ease the current tightness in Pacific Basin LNG supply to a degree, but buyers are still likely to have difficulty lining up spot volumes, Asian traders and buyers say (WGI Oct. 5, p1)....

Europe likely to see higher power prices this winter.(CURRENT)
October 12, 2005... Europe's electricity markets remain relatively subdued ahead of the winter, thanks to unseasonably warm weather across the region. However, prices are expected to firm as colder weather settles in over the next few months. This is already...

LNG plant outages raise questions, answers scarce.(Horizon)
October 12, 2005... A recent rash of outages at liquefaction plants worldwide has squeezed LNG spot supply and raised important questions about developments in LNG technology and their potential commercial consequences (p6). While some market-watchers say the...

Exxon's Sakhalin-1 eyes LNG.
October 19, 2005... LNG is for the first time being actively considered as an option for exporting gas from the Exxon Mobil-operated Sakhalin-1 project in Far Eastern Russia, which has to date focused on potential pipeline gas sales, targeting first Japan and more...

Gazprom may swap its way into Sakhalin.
October 19, 2005... The naming this week of Alexander Ryazanov, deputy chairman of Gazprom, to replace Eugene Shvidler as president of Sibneft marks the final chapter in the takeover of that once proudly private oil producer by the state gas giant--and an apparent...

Peru sets out to build domestic use.
October 19, 2005... As Peru's gas pie grows, so does the intensity of the battle for slices of the newly discovered treasures. Latest government figures show reserves and production of gas from Peru's main field, Camisea, on an impressive upward curve this...

Indians eye Australia, Malaysia for LNG.
October 19, 2005... Russia's Sakhalin Island isn't the only place India has turned to in its search for alternatives to the short-haul Mideast LNG for which it must compete with pricey Atlantic Basin markets (p1). Indian companies are also angling to invest in...

Politics cloud Baltic pipeline advances.
October 19, 2005... Russian Gazprom's export arm Gazexport and German-Russian marketer Wingas have agreed on basic terms for gas deliveries via the planned North European Gas Pipeline (NEGP) beneath the Baltic Sea, the companies said last week. However, the deal...

Sakhalin-1 expenses.
October 19, 2005... Even as it contemplates building a third LNG train, the Royal Dutch Shell-led Sakhalin-2 venture in Far Eastern Russia is struggling with a diverse array of technical and environmental challenges that contributed to a massive revision to the...

Turkmen, Ukraine wall.
October 19, 2005... Ukraine looks to be running into a brick wall in attempts to ease its dependence on Russian gas by signing a new long-term supply contract with Turkmenistan. Instead, it has failed even to negotiate the terms of Turkmen gas purchases for 2006....

Turkey's non-auction.
October 19, 2005... Late last month, Turkish state pipeline operator and gas importer Botas yet again postponed the tender deadline for its mandatory gas-release program. The new "deadline"--the sixth since January--is Nov. 29, and this time authorities have...

Correction.(Correction Notice)
October 19, 2005... Last week's WGI table of Qatari LNG projects listed only Qatar Petroleum and Exxon Mobil as shareholders in RasGas1 (WGI Oct.12,p1). In fact, it has five shareholders: QP 63%, Exxon 25%, South Korea's Koras 5%, Japan's Itochu 4% and LNG Japan...

Suez LNG's changing ship charter plans.
October 19, 2005... After some wrangling, French Suez' shipping arrangements for LNG it is to lift after 2008 from Yemen appear to be slowly falling into place. Suez' LNG Trading on Monday announced it bad agreed to charter two LNG carriers from Norwegian...

Market insight: Qatari outage hits Spain.(INSIGHT)
October 19, 2005... Spain's already tight LNG supply situation was made tighter by recent production problems at Qatargas that came less than a month after Nigeria, the country's largest LNG supplier, resumed normal output (WGI Aug.31,p1). Qatargas managers remain...

South, Central Europe short on hydropower, north better.(Current)
October 19, 2005... Europe faces a potential hydropower shortage this winter, with reservoir levels in some places below normal levels after an exceptionally dry year. Unless autumn rains arrive soon to recharge those reservoirs, power markets in southern Europe,...

Hurricanes alter climate for investment in renewables.(Horizon)(Company Profile)
October 19, 2005... Since Hurricanes Katrina and Rita tore through the US Gulf of Mexico ravaging oil and gas infrastructure and waking many to the country's vulnerable supply position, interest in renewable energy sources has revived remarkably. The moment has...

Henry Hub role debated.
October 26, 2005... The growing importance of the Henry Hub pricing benchmark in global LNG markets and the risk to demand and general smooth functioning of underlying gas markets resulting from the fact that the US marker has recently soared ahead of gas prices...

Why China may not need all that LNG.
October 26, 2005... China has at least 17 approved and proposed LNG regasification terminals scattered along its eastern seaboard, but how many of them does it really need? The assumption that China will simply absorb all the LNG sent its way in the future is...

Algeria advancing on LNG, GTL, pipe.
October 26, 2005... Algerian state Sonatrach is advancing on a number of export fronts that had appeared stalled until recently, including the booking of new LNG receiving capacity in the US, the apparently imminent conclusion of several final supply contracts for...

Mexican regulator upbeat on LNG.
October 26, 2005... Lack of adequate investment in Mexico's upstream, especially for natural gas, at the same time demand for gas is growing in the power sector leaves the country with no choice but to turn to LNG imports to ensure necessary supplies are...

Under gun, Eni seeks new Gazprom deal.
October 26, 2005... Top executives of Italy's Eni flew on a surprise mission to Moscow last Thursday in an apparently successful effort to persuade Gazprom to alter an agreement that the two companies reached only five months ago that allows Gazprom to market...

All producers onboard for Alaska pipe.
October 26, 2005... Weeks of near seven-day, 24-hour negotiating sessions have brought the state of Alaska and the three primary North Slope gas reserve holders close to accord on a framework agreement that would stipulate fiscal and regulatory terms for the...

Norwegian outage.
October 26, 2005... UK and continental Northwest European gas prices gained Monday on the back of the continued shut-in of some 43.5 million cubic meters (1.5 billion cubic feet) per day of gas from the Asgard and associated platforms in the Norwegian Sea. ...

Chile LNG purchase award coming soon.
October 26, 2005... Chile will announce within days the winners of a bidding process for separate contracts to build and to supply a new LNG receiving terminal in the country by 2009. Energy and Economy Minister Jorge Rodriguez said publicly that government has...

Market insight: LNG supply fears.(Insight)
October 26, 2005... Global LNG spot market tightness continues unabated, with the recent spate of outages at export facilities and soaring spot prices apparently raising security-of-supply concerns among Spanish buyers that have brought several spot cargoes to...

Sky-high oil, gas prices inflating US winter power markets.(Current)
October 26, 2005... The North American power sector is already preparing customers for much higher retail electricity bills due to high gas prices, and it has become fixated on the potential for much higher prices still--and potentially even difficulties in...

Vision of Singapore as Asia's LNG trading, storage hub.(Horizon)
October 26, 2005... As LNG becomes traded more and more like a commodity, will buyers find themselves purchasing spot cargoes from a regional storage hub, rather than directly from producers? The concept is germinating in Europe, where Dutch terminal major...