World Gas Intelligence articles from October 2008

World Gas Intelligence archives from October 2008

NWS Train 5 spotting.
October 1, 2008... Incremental LNG will likely be available on the spot market from Train 5 at Australia's North West Shelf (NWS) project over the coming winter, given higher-than-expected output from the new facility, NWS sources tell WGI, adding that a couple...

Qatargas boss: new LNG likely this winter.
October 1, 2008... Qatargas remains intent on sending first shipments from its initial giant LNG train to the UK's South Hook terminal by end-2008, although the complexity of ramping up the world's largest liquefaction facility could still translate into further...

Azerbaijan's Turkish, Russian troubles.
October 1, 2008... Two developments have cast greater doubt on the likelihood that exports from Phase 2 of Azerbaijan's BP-led Shah Deniz development will make their way through Turkey and on via the European Union-supported Nabucco system to Central Europe: a...

Flex LNG horizons expand, may contract.
October 1, 2008... While Norway's Flex LNG is riding high on the floating liquefaction (FLNG) craze, contemplating moves downstream and upstream as well as outside the Asia-Pacific and West African scope of its current operations, it and other small developers...

Third LNG try for Venezuela the charm?
October 1, 2008... Venezuela has launched its third attempt in a period spanning almost two decades to develop an LNG export industry, this time encompassing three separately owned liquefaction trains, each with a capacity of 4.7 million tons (6.5 billion cubic...

Exxon seeks tankers for PNG LNG.
October 1, 2008... Exxon Mobil plans to have a fleet of dedicated ships to service its Papua New Guinea (PNG) LNG project, and is inviting owners, operators and shipyards to submit bids in a tender process to supply the ships. Exxon is operator of a planned 6.3...

Egyptian tenders.
October 1, 2008... State Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Co. (Egas) has launched a licensing round for seven Mediterranean offshore blocks--its first bid round in over two years. The blocks are being tendered with the country's new ceiling prices for gas in mind,...

GDF Suez winner of LNG Award 2008.
October 1, 2008... This July's merger of Gaz de France (GDF) and Suez created the European Union's largest LNG importer, gas marketer and gas grid operator, as well as its second-largest operator of LNG terminals and gas storage. With extensive receiving terminal...

Market insight: looming LNG bears.(INSIGHT)
October 1, 2008... Not even the notoriously bullish global LNG spot market is proving entirely immune to the rampant bearishness in global energy markets that saw front-month crude oil plunge more than $10 per barrel when US financial bailout efforts faltered...

France's EDF faces hurdles in UK, US nuclear-related bids.(CURRENT)
October 1, 2008... French utility EDF laid the groundwork for a far-reaching international expansion of its domestically dominant nuclear power business with two big takeover offers over the last week: one the carefully negotiated [pounds sterling]12.5 billion...

Gas and power prices for major US and European hubs.(CURRENT)
October 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] US prices are the weighted average of assessments by Natural Gas Weekfor five trading days, spanning Sep. 23-29. European gas prices are WGI assessments on Sep. 29 for day-ahead delivery Sep. 30. European power...

North America's LNG business still caught in recurring cycle.(HORIZON)
October 1, 2008... American folk philosopher Yogi Berra once remarked, "It's deja vu all over again." Exactly what the one-time star baseball star was referring to is open to debate, but it could just as aptly describe efforts to develop a North American LNG...

E.On's surprise Gazprom deal.
October 8, 2008... The ongoing global credit squeeze and attendant plunge in both equity and commodity prices appear, ironically enough, to have helped E.On secure last week's agreement from Gazprom to a swap that will give the German company its long-expected...

Russia's Asian gas game still goes slowly.
October 8, 2008... The Asian race to access Russian pipeline gas is intensifying: State Gazprom last week tentatively agreed to sell 10 billion cubic meters per year (967 million cubic feet per day) of gas to South Korea starting in 2015, while Chinese and...

LNG projects still few, still lag in PNG.
October 8, 2008... After struggling for almost two decades to find a market for its stranded yet abundant gas, Papua New Guinea now has four LNG projects potentially representing more than 12 million tons per year (1.6 billion cubic feet per day) of exports (WGI...

Hurdles face Canada's Rabaska LNG project.
October 8, 2008... The Rabaska LNG project thought it had cleared its biggest hurdle in May, when Russia's Gazprom agreed to become the sole supplier for the 500 million cubic foot per day (3.8 million ton per year) receiving terminal to be located near Quebec...

Scandal endangers Peru's gas boom.
October 8, 2008... Peruvian government efforts to promote the country as a competitive, investment-friendly environment for oil companies faced a setback this week when several high-level officials were forced to resign amid corruption charges relating to the...

Croatia, Qatar, Norway LNG moves.
October 8, 2008... Croatia's government last week chose the northern Adriatic island of Krk for the country's first LNG terminal, which is expected to enter service in 2014 at Omisalj. It is to be built by a consortium of five foreign and three Croatian energy...

Norwegian flows up, dutch output down.
October 8, 2008... Norwegian subsea gas grid operator Gassco transported 93.3 billion cubic meters (9 billion cubic feet per day) of Norwegian gas to European terminals in the gas year that ended Oct. 1, for an increase of 11%, or some 9 Bcm, on the previous...

Exxon, Gazprom Sakhalin-1 talks stall.
October 8, 2008... Talks between Russian state Gazprom and Sakhalin-1 operator Exxon Mobil over the handling of nonassociated gas from the project have stalled, with Gazprom still insisting that Sakhalin-1 gas is needed to gasify Russia's own Far East. The...

Market insight: US price uncertainty.(INSIGHT)
October 8, 2008... The last week of September--when the so-called US bid-week prices that will determine the cost of much of the country's term supply through October were set--was a hectic one, with prices oscillating in reaction to some unusual influences. The...

Iran among many calling for uranium supply guarantees.(CURRENT)
October 8, 2008... Russian and US scientists and Iranian diplomats alike apparently find themselves in agreement on one key aspect of the nuclear fuel cycle--a need for enriched uranium supply assurance. This emerged as a central theme in a US-Russian scientific...

Gas and power prices for major US and European hubs.(CURRENT)
October 8, 2008... US prices are the weighted average of assessments by Natural Gas Weekfor five trading days, spanning Sep. 30-Oct. 6. European gas prices are WGI assessments on Oct. 6 for day-ahead delivery Oct. 7. European power prices are from exchanges on...

Europe tackles cross-border, inter-network bottlenecks.(HORIZON)
October 8, 2008... Movement is finally being seen in many parts of Europe toward tackling the dearth of cross-border and inter-network connections that has presented such an obstacle to gas market competition. Around 40 gas firms have signaled nonbinding interest...

LNG spot market turn.
October 15, 2008... Last week saw drama of historic proportions on markets of all types all over the world, and while LNG couldn't compete for headlines, it may prove an exception only in degree. This is "not a pure seller's market any longer," one Spanish trader...

Turkey looking out for itself first.
October 15, 2008... While Turkey's state Botas has once again sought to ease concern among potential suppliers, customers and partners that it may wish to act as a middleman, taking ownership of gas as it flows through Turkey via the proposed Nabucco pipeline to...

Iran, Iraq promote pipes to Turkey.
October 15, 2008... Both Iran and Iraq last week assigned a heightened priority to building a new pipeline to Turkey, potentially helping to alleviate Turkey's recently affirmed worry about adequacy of supply into the next decade (p1). Both projects carry a hefty...

North American LNG at a crossroads.
October 15, 2008... While some still say North America will need LNG to meet growing demand over the long term, challenges associated with importing large volumes of gas appear to be mounting. Tough competition for supply, rising project costs, growing US gas...

Convulsions extend to European gas.
October 15, 2008... Convulsions in the global banking sector are having unforeseen consequences for the Gazprom-backed Nord Stream pipeline to Germany, coinciding with extreme volatility in Europe's utility stocks--blamed by GDF Suez on Belgium--and a collapse of...

Behind Latin America's turn to LNG.
October 15, 2008... Natural gas integration was much in favor in Latin America in the 1990s as private investment spurred output in several countries and a proliferation of pipelines increased cross-border flows. By contrast, this decade is witnessing a process of...

UK gas for free.
October 15, 2008... "A combination of winter supply and summer temperatures" sent the price of within-day UK gas to zero on Sunday. The trading day featured abundant Norwegian gas flows and storage and a UK gas grid itself too full to absorb much of it. Sunday's...

Market insight: LNG trading becalmed.(INSIGHT)
October 15, 2008... Despite winter's approach, spot trading in LNG has virtually ground to a halt in Asia, as well-supplied buyers hold out for ever lower prices on Atlantic Basin cargoes and sellers trim expectations only slowly. Amid forecasts of a mild winter,...

Polish power sector feels chill wind from investment freeze.(CURRENT)
October 15, 2008... Polish state electricity group Enea has been caught directly in the eye of the ongoing financial maelstrom. The country's third-largest generator, with roughly 2.9 gigawatts of installed capacity and electricity sales of 17 terawatt hours in...

Gas and power prices for major US and European hubs.(CURRENT)
October 15, 2008... US prices are the weighted average of assessments by Natural Gas Week for five trading days, spanning Oct. 7-13. European gas prices are WGI assessments on Oct. 13 for day-ahead delivery Oct. 14. European power prices are from exchanges on Oct....

Total keeps focus on upstream as LNG business diversifies.(HORIZON)
October 15, 2008... France's Total has long had a strong global upstream position in LNG. It currently has interests in five operating liquefaction projects--Adgas in Abu Dhabi, Bontang in Indonesia, Nigeria LNG, Oman LNG and Qatargas--and in four more under...

Nigeria LNG confusion.
October 22, 2008... Nigeria LNG (NLNG) Train 6 went on stream in April. Six months later, it is unclear whether the 4 million ton per year plant has yet contributed any additional volumes net of exports from Trains 1-5--or indeed whether it is producing and...

LNG project financing tightens, changes.
October 22, 2008... The global credit crunch will make it more difficult and expensive for gas companies to finance LNG projects in the short term--no small consideration given that as many as four financing packages for new or expanded liquefaction facilities had...

LNG project costs not easing--yet.
October 22, 2008... LNG project costs have escalated dramatically over the past two years, as global demand for such raw materials as steel and oil spiraled upward, and labor and contractor shortages spurred inflation in overall construction costs. With crude oil...

US gas production growth endangered.
October 22, 2008... US gas production topped 60 billion cubic feet per day in July, according to the US Energy Information Administration, a volume not seen since March 1974. Drilling activity through August seemed likely to result in the highest annual output in...

India set for timely spot LNG spurt.
October 22, 2008... India is likely to witness a further spurt in spot LNG purchasing in 2009-when supply may well be plentiful--as importers look at bridging a deficit before Reliance Industries' eastern offshore Krishna-Godavari Basin D6 field gradually takes...

French regulators loath to liberalize?
October 22, 2008... French regulator Cre has been notably silent since the working group on regulation of LNG terminals in France submitted its report in April. The regulator has not yet set tariffs for the nearly completed Fos Cavaou terminal or for four...

Algeria shuns Asia in new force majeure.
October 22, 2008... Suspicions that overburdened pipelines could be behind continued output shortfalls from Algeria's Arzew LNG plant were confirmed this week by Sonatrach Vice President for Marketing Chawki Rahal (WGI Sep.17,p1). A crack in one of the gas...

Market insight: Europe's diverging prices.(INSIGHT)
October 22, 2008... It's an unhappy irony for European gas users that, despite a collapse in world oil prices to less than half of their mid-July $147 per barrel peak, long-term gas prices from such suppliers as Russia and Algeria increased this month and may...

Euro utilities scramble to outpace EU efforts to curb coal use.(CURRENT)
October 22, 2008... Proposals from the European Parliament's influential environment committee to curb emissions from fossil-fueled power stations--especially coal-fired units--could backfire, at least in the short term. Amid growing resistance by national...

Gas and power prices for major US and European hubs.(CURRENT)
October 22, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] US prices are the weighted average of assessments by Natural Gas Weekfor five trading days, spanning Oct. 14-20. European gas prices are WGI assessments on Oct. 20 for day-ahead delivery Oct. 21. European power...

Gazprom's latest vision of Russia's gas outlook to 2030.(HORIZON)
October 22, 2008... A plan drawn up by state Gazprom for development of Russia's gas sector through 2030 envisages investment of roughly half $1 trillion and production growth of around 40% over the next two decades--but indicates less scope for growth in Asian...

Reconsidering price floors.
October 29, 2008... Not only has this autumn's plunge in oil prices to less than half of July's peak level turned the LNG trade into a buyer's market, but a rebound in oil prices wouldn't put sellers back in a commanding position (WGI Oct.15,p1). Those days are...

'Gas troika' talks, but gas forum stumbles.
October 29, 2008... Last week's agreement by high-level gas officials from top global gas reserves holders Russia, Qatar and Iran to set up a technical committee to coordinate new exploration and production projects may be more a sign of continued disarray within...

Mexico wants more LNG, less US gas.
October 29, 2008... As gas demand continues to grow in Mexico, concern is mounting that production, while increasing, may not keep up with demand. An energy reform proposal approved last week by the country's senate could help boost supply by giving state Pemex...

Forecasters, traders split on US market.
October 29, 2008... US gas market analysts are slashing price forecasts for the coming winter, despite cutbacks to upstream spending and indications of continuing strong demand in reaction to Henry Hub prices in the $6-$6.70 per million Btu range even on futures...

Liquid Niugini LNG seeks new partners.
October 29, 2008... Phil Mulacek, chief executive of Papua New Guinea (PNG) explorer and refiner InterOil, admits that his partnership's decision to appoint investment bank Merrill Lynch as the sole lifter and marketer of LNG from its Liquid Niugini liquefaction...

Quebec outpaces BC in Canadian shale.
October 29, 2008... The financial rewards from a natural gas play can depend as much on geography as geology--as a couple of recent Canadian shale gas discoveries illustrate. If, for example, the location resembles the Horn River Basin of British Columbia in being...

E.On's LNG contract.
October 29, 2008... E.On Ruhrgas is now lifting LNG cargoes for the first time, under a small term contract acquired as part of its recent move into Spain. "We now have LNG, although we don't have that much," E.On Ruhrgas chief Bernhard Reutersberg told...

Total on Qatar pause.
October 29, 2008... Underlining the long and uncertain duration of Qatar's moratorium on new gas export projects, Total's vice president for the Mideast region, Ladislas Paszkiewicz, told the 13th International Gas Summit in Paris last week that the moratorium...

Market insight: LNG doldrums.(INSIGHT)
October 29, 2008... As with other commodities, so also with LNG. Spot prices have dropped and trading activity has slowed dramatically since August. Spot cargoes are currently selling for around $15 per million Btu delivered to East Asia, while in Spain the price...

Wave power technologies start to gain traction in Europe.(CURRENT)
October 29, 2008... After a long, slow buildup, wave power is finally causing a stir off Western European coastlines. Scottish developer Pelamis Wave Power has begun generating electricity from a 2.5 megawatt cylindrical wave energy converter off the coast of...

Gas and power prices for major US and European hubs.(CURRENT)
October 29, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] US prices are the weighted average of assessments by Natural Gas Weekfor five trading days, spanning Oct. 21-27. European gas prices are WGI assessments on Oct. 27 for day-ahead delivery Oct. 28. European power...

US West Coast LNG projects move ahead, despite hurdles.(HORIZON)
October 29, 2008... Despite an array of market challenges unfolding for proposed North American LNG import terminals, projects on the Pacific Coast are charging ahead with planning and permitting, hoping that both supply and demand will materialize over time (WGI...