World Gas Intelligence articles from October 2006

World Gas Intelligence archives from October 2006

Shtokman rumor mill.
October 4, 2006... Gazprom tells WGI that there's been no change in the shortlist of its potential partners for a 22.5 billion cubic meter (16.3 million ton) per year LNG development at the huge Shtokman field, effectively denying published reports that Germany's...

UK prompt gas prices turn negative.
October 4, 2006... A wave of Norwegian gas moving through the new Langeled pipeline has caused such prompt oversupply in the UK that traders have literally paid others to take gas off their hands. Within-day spot gas traded on Sunday and again Tuesday morning at...

Vitol enters LNG fray.
October 4, 2006... Swiss-based oil trader Vitol has chartered an Omani LNG carrier to transport two to three Malaysian state Petronas cargoes from Egypt to Belgium, WGI hears. The ship is said to have been fixed in the mid-$70,000 per day range, with the charter...

Call goes out for higher Egypt gas price.
October 4, 2006... Egypt urgently needs to reform its gas pricing in order to ensure future exploration. That was the message from oil and gas industry executives at a recent conference in Madrid. The government currently pays producers just $2.65 per...

Austrian marketing coup for Gazprom.
October 4, 2006... In line with its determined drive into the European downstream gas business, Russia's Gazprom has for the first time obtained the right to directly market one-quarter of the gas it delivers to Austria. This came as part of contract extensions...

Prices hit drilling, output in Canada.
October 4, 2006... Drilling activity in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin had already started to weaken over the summer, but what was a modest downturn has turned into a rout with the onset of autumn and the drop in prices at the crucial Aeco Hub to a...

Russia, Belarus strain.
October 4, 2006... The failure so far of Russia and Belarus to come to an agreement on gas-cooperation terms threatens to wreck a bilateral alliance between the two countries dating back to 1997 that envisages eventual economic, political and military union,...

Oman prowls for gas.
October 4, 2006... A mid-September deadline for bids to develop tight gas reserves in Oman's Khazzan and Makarem fields attracted eight international companies and groups, including several majors, an industry source told Energy Intelligence last week (WGI...

Used Russian tankers?
October 4, 2006... Russia's largest shipowner, Sovcomflot, has bought two of the world's oldest LNG carriers, according to shipping industry sources, who claim a desire to sell the ships was flagged well in advance by BG. The purchase is seen by many as a...

US bottom fishing.(MARKET INSIGHT)
October 4, 2006... Mild weather, ample storage and technical indicators all pooled together last month to send North American gas prices plummeting during the bidweek period in which many term prices for the subsequent month are established. The October futures...

Wind power developers eye linkage with new-style battery.(Current)
October 4, 2006... The problem with wind power is that it only works when the wind blows, just as solar works most effectively when the sun shines. With government carbon-reduction policies pushing wind and other renewables into the mainstream in Europe and parts...

Chinese mull pipeline expansions as domestic output rises.(Horizon)
October 4, 2006... Chinese majors China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC) and Sinopec are looking to expand their gas pipeline systems and eyeing more domestic discoveries to feed ballooning demand for natural gas in China--although plenty of room should remain for...

Shtokman puzzle.
October 11, 2006... Russia's Gazprom has dropped plans to develop the giant Shtokman natural gas field in the Barents Sea as a LNG project. Instead, the gas will be piped to the European market--without the help of Western companies. Gazprom said this week it...

US sees slack LNG third quarter.
October 11, 2006... US LNG imports dropped sharply in the third quarter, as a relatively cool summer and record levels of gas in storage depressed demand, keeping netbacks low. The US took in an average of 1.7 billion cubic feet per day in the third quarter (or...

Bolivia lacks gas for new market.
October 11, 2006... Bolivia is confident it will soon wrap up negotiations with Argentina to triple natural gas exports to that country in four years. But with Bolivia's gas output falling and private investments frozen, where the additional volumes will come from...

Maple looks sweet, as bear head aches.
October 11, 2006... Until recently, odds-makers would have bet that Anadarko Petroleum's planned Bear Head LNG terminal at Port Tupper, Nova Scotia, had better prospects for completion than the nearby venture at Goldboro proposed by Keltic Petrochemical developer...

Qatar lured with Petronet stake.
October 11, 2006... India's government has offered Qatar a stake in its Petronet LNG and also drafted a new policy for city gas distribution networks. Qatar Investment Agency is likely to start due diligence this week, after receiving last week's offer from...

GTL banner year.
October 11, 2006... For the nascent natural gas-to-liquids (GTL) business, 2006 will go down as the most active and successful to date--despite some wobbling by project sponsors as costs soared. South African Sasol and state Qatar Petroleum (QP) began...

Gasunie, Gazprom in pipe swap.
October 11, 2006... Gazprom signed a memorandum of understanding last Thursday with Dutch state gas network operator Gasunie over equity swaps in gas pipeline projects from Russia to Germany and from the Netherlands to the UK. It marks progress on a deal inked in...

Snohvit cargo shipped from Egypt.
October 11, 2006... Spain's second largest power group, Iberdrola, said Friday it received its first LNG cargo under its Snohvit contract. However, because that Norwegian export plant won't even start test production until autumn 2007 at the earliest, this initial...

Asian buying slows.(MARKET INSIGHT)
October 11, 2006... Japan is likely to have slowed spot procurement in September as heavy purchasing through July and August kept inventories at the brim, traders said, while South Korean utilities are turning to fuel oil amid the prospect of tightening LNG...

EdF to regain industrial clients, build LNG terminal.(Current)
October 11, 2006... The long-awaited plan to fully open Europe's gas and power markets by July next year may not bring in as much competition in French electricity as its Brussels architects had hoped, following a decision by Paris to retain regulated power...

Micro-generation gets ready to go mainstream.(Horizon)
October 11, 2006... Distributed generation has been long touted as a means to bridge a growing energy gap in many countries, possibly removing the need for building new large-scale plants to replace aging capacity, but has so far not made many inroads. This could,...

Sakhalin-1 battle plans.
October 18, 2006... As oil exports begin trickling out from the first phase of Sakhalin-1, the Exxon Mobil-led consortium developing the massive project off Russia's Pacific coast is looking ahead to the second phase, involving natural gas exports. Exxon expects...

Italy, Algeria both warm to Galsi pipe.
October 18, 2006... Italy is reaching out to Algeria to allay its fears of a cartel-like alliance developing between Algeria's Sonatrach and Russia's Gazprom following the cooperation agreement between the two state firms announced in August (WGI Aug.23,p8)....

Exxon, Indonesia spat over Natuna.
October 18, 2006... Indonesia, which is desperately trying to boost gas output for both export and domestic markets, is pressing Exxon Mobil heavily to develop a plan for the Natuna D-Alpha block, one of the country's largest known unexploited hydrocarbon...

Australian state wants to keep some gas.
October 18, 2006... Australia is considered by far the most dependable source of new Asia-Pacific LNG going into the next decade, but this perception may change if the state government of Western Australian implements an announced policy to reserve for domestic...

Supply-short India eyes more terminals.
October 18, 2006... Undeterred by its lack of success in lining up long-term supply beyond the initial 5 million tons per year it imports from Qatar's RasGas, India continues to plan for more and bigger LNG terminals. Federal and state officials are now projecting...

Qatari gas in Mexico.
October 18, 2006... RasGas delivered Qatar's first-ever LNG cargo to Mexico Oct. 8. Traders tell WGI that price was most likely the key factor that drew the cargo over 18,000 kilometers to the Altamira terminal in eastern Mexico, making this the longest journey...

Suez, GdF give ground.
October 18, 2006... As part of a campaign to secure European Commission approval for its planned merger with Gaz de France (GdF), Suez has offered to sell its majority stake in Belgian gas incumbent Distrigas. While the offer is subject to two key provisos, these...

Norway-Sweden pipe.
October 18, 2006... Fresh from the successful launch of its new pipeline to England, and with another export record under its belt, Norway's gas sector has fleshed out plans for a pipeline to Sweden. Norwegian state subsea network operator Gassco early this...

Euro hub concerns.(MARKET INSIGHT)
October 18, 2006... Pressure testing just weeks ahead of opening of the new "BBL" pipeline linking the Netherlands to the UK may keep downward pressure on prices at the UK National Balancing Point (NBP), while boosting liquidity--and prices--at the Dutch TTF...

New North American electricity reliability cop on duty.(Current)
October 18, 2006... North America's new electricity "reliability cop" this week issued its first white paper on the state of the grid, with few surprises for those already aware of the potential for power shortages in several parts of the US over the next couple...

Shortages of LNG feedstock gas spread across globe.(Horizon)
October 18, 2006... Global gas reserves may yet prove as plentiful as energy forecasters have long assumed them to be. For the moment, however, feedstock gas supply is proving to be a major constraint both for operation of existing liquefaction plants and for...

Qatar just says no.
October 25, 2006... Those looking to new projects in Qatar to solve the world's looming gas shortage should look elsewhere (WGI Oct.18,p8). State Qatar Petroleum (QP) late last week tacked yet another year onto its moratorium on approval of additional gas schemes...

Mexico's CFE eyes another terminal.
October 25, 2006... Mexico's Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) says that gas requirements are high enough to justify construction of yet another LNG receiving terminal, possibly on the Pacific Coast, alongside the up to 1 billion cubic foot per day (7.5 million...

Threat to US drilling.
October 25, 2006... Oil services giant Schlumberger turned in a strong third-quarter profit last week, but the company's top executive hinted that an upstream slowdown may be looming in North America--further evidence that recent US and Canadian gas prices are at...

Lukoil warms to gas sales to Gazprom.
October 25, 2006... A long-term strategy of accelerated growth presented by Russia's top oil major Lukoil to investors in New York last week targets a tenfold increase in gas output to 6.8 billion cubic feet per day (2.5 trillion cubic feet or 71 billion cubic...

Gazprom plans giant German storage.
October 25, 2006... Gazprom is positioning itself at the cutting edge of European moves to increase storage as a means of calming security of supply concerns. Through the ZMB subsidiary of its German marketing arm--just renamed Gazprom Germania--the Russian...

India's appetite for spot LNG growing.
October 25, 2006... India's appetite for spot LNG is growing. Gujarat State Petroleum Corp. (GSPC) has announced plans to enter spot LNG trading, using terminals in the western state of Gujarat operated by Royal Dutch Shell and State Petronet LNG. This follows...

Bangladesh lacks exploration Oomph.
October 25, 2006... Despite talk of huge gas reserves in Bangladesh, the country continues to face a chronic shortfall in domestic gas supply--and in explanation fingers continue to point at the government's lack of urgency in allowing more offshore exploration....

Drillers find gas in Libya, but rigs tight.
October 25, 2006... Drilling is turning up gas finds in Libya as work gets underway on packages of blocks awarded in 2003 and in areas awarded in the country's first Epsa-4 licensing round in January 2005--albeit with some delays resulting from rig shortages. Any...

Euro LNG lead.(MARKET INSIGHT)
October 25, 2006... The LNG spot trade picked up in October, shaking off its September doldrums as netbacks increased across the globe. There was no notable shift in the relative attractiveness of different markets, however. The US still offers the lowest...

Europe seeks energy security from supply, demand sides.(Current)
October 25, 2006... Security of energy supply topped the European Union agenda last week, amid a multi-pronged campaign to avert future energy crises. Looking to address the supply side of the equation, European leaders called for a "close and binding"...

Bolivarian pipeline dreams give way to harsh LNG reality.(Horizon)
October 25, 2006... Many Latin Americans cling to the Bolivarian-style notion of regional gas market integration, a scenario in which vast volumes of Bolivian, Venezuelan and perhaps Peruvian gas would be sold at "fair" but relatively low prices to fuel economic...