Canadian Natural Gas Companies eager to capitalize on the LNG boom flood the market with excess supply
Analysts said that a huge LNG Canada terminal, led by Shell, could struggle to raise Canadian natural-gas prices dramatically when it begins operating next year, because of a glut of supply waiting to be released. Storage was full, and the price of a million British thermal unit (mmBtu), which had been at a high for two years, dropped to 5 Canadian cents in late September. The slump hurts producers who increased drilling activity in anticipation of LNG Canada's new demand and has prompted some firms curtail their production.
EIA: US natgas production will decline in 2024 as demand reaches record levels, EIA reports
The U.S. Energy Information Administration's (EIA's) Short Term Energy Outlook, released on Tuesday, predicted that U.S. Natural Gas production would decline by 2024 and demand would rise to a new record. EIA projects that dry gas production in the US will fall from a record high of 103.8 billion cubic foot per day (bcfd), in 2023, to 103.5 bcfd by 2024. In March, the number of people who were unemployed fell to its lowest level in 32 years. EIA's projected production for 2025 is 104.6 bcfd. The agency also predicted that domestic gas consumption will rise from a new record of 89.1 Bcfd by 2023…
TotalEnergies purchases more gas assets in Texas for value chain boost
TotalEnergies, a French company, has expanded its natural gas footprint into the United States by announcing a deal with Lewis Energy Group. The two companies have agreed to buy a 45% share in certain dry gas producing assets located in the Eagle Ford Basin in Texas. TotalEnergies is one of the largest exporters of U.S. made Liquified Natural Gas. This gas is in high demand, as countries such as Europe and other parts of the world are moving away from cheap Russian gas and coal. KEY QUOTE (S) "This acquisition strengthens…
EIA: US natgas production to decline by 2024, while demand will rise to record levels
The U.S. Energy Information Administration's (EIA) Short-Term Energy Outlook for 2024 predicts that natural gas production in the United States will decrease in 2024, while demand will reach a new record. EIA projects that dry gas production in the US will fall from a record high of 103.8 billion cubic foot per day (bcfd), in 2023, to 103.4 bcfd by 2024. This is because several producers have reduced drilling activities following spot gas prices at Henry Hub benchmark. In March, the number of people in poverty fell to its lowest level for 25 years. EIA's projected production for 2025 is 104.8 bcfd.
Equinor Increases Ownership in Linnorm Discovery
Equinor will acquire Shell’s equity in and operatorship of the Linnorm discovery in the Norwegian Sea. Under this agreement, Equinor will acquire a 30% interest in the PL 255 covering the Linnorm discovery, conditional upon taking over the operatorship from A/S Norske Shell. The deal is expected to close during the first quarter of 2024.The Linnorm discovery in the Norwegian Sea was proven in 2005 and is the largest undeveloped gas discovery on the NCS. Linnorm is estimated to contain around 25-30 billion cubic meters (bcm)of recoverable gas resources.
Carbon Capture & Storage: A New Lease of Life for Submarine Pipelines?
Since 2019, hydrogen and carbon capture and storage (CCS) have risen up the political agenda, globally, offering a route to decarbonization, as well as (more recently), increased energy security. Many are eying use of existing pipeline to make both happen. Elaine Maslin takes a look.Hydrogen production and CCS offers a more or less “green” decarbonization options for oil and gas companies, alongside carbon capture and storage (CCS), especially if existing offshore infrastructure could be reused to make it happen.
Mako Gas Field Exceeds Hopes: Conrad
Indonesian oil & gas exploration and production company Conrad Petroleum has flowed dry gas from its Tambak-1 well located in the Duyung PSC in the West Natuna Basin, offshore Indonesia.The Tambak-1 well was designed to both appraise the Mako gas field and test the underlying Tambak exploration prospect. Coro Energy plc holds a 15% interest in this project.The drill stem test (DST) flowed dry gas from the intra-Muda sands at a rate of 11.4 MMcf/day on a 181/64-inch (2.8 inches) choke, maintaining a wellhead tubing pressure of 225psi.
Woodside Expands LNG Supply
Australian exploration and production company Woodside has opened a liquefied natural gas (LNG) truck loading facility at its Pluto LNG project in Western Australia (WA), as it looks to develop the domestic LNG market for remote power generation and transport fuels.The Pluto LNG project is located 190km north-west of Karratha in WA, in the Northern Carnarvon Basin. It processes LNG from the Pluto and Xena gas fields, which have total dry gas recoverable reserve volumes of 4.4 trillion cubic feet (tcf) and 0.6tcf respectively.Following the completion of commissioning activities…
Repsol Buys Stake in Norway’s Mikkel Field
Repsol has reached an agreement with Total to acquire its 7.65% stake in the producing Mikkel field, in the eastern part of the Norwegian Sea.The Mikkel field is a gas and condensate reservoir located 35 kilometers south of the Midgard deposit on Equinor’s Åsgard field in the Norwegian Sea. In 2017, it achieved an average production of 47,075 barrels of oil equivalent a day.Following the acquisition, Repsol will become part of the Mikkel field’s operating consortium, which will be composed of operator Equinor Energy AS…
Enbridge to Put More of Ohio TEAL Natgas Pipe Into Service
Canadian energy company Enbridge Inc on Wednesday sought permission from U.S. energy regulators to put the remaining part of its Texas Eastern Appalachian Lease (TEAL) Phase 1 natural gas pipeline in Ohio into service.In a filing with the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), Enbridge said it expects to complete work on the last part of the $200 million TEAL project by Oct. 26 and would like FERC to approve of its request by Oct. 30.The facilities Enbridge is seeking to put into service include about…
Integrated Gas Compression: A Natural Fit for North America
Natural gas abounds in North America. At the end of 2016, Canada and the U.S. shared 414 trillion cubic feet of proved reserves, with the U.S. the world’s largest producer and Canada the fourth largest. Unsurprisingly, there’s a keen appetite for developing LNG facilities across the continent.In recent years, we’ve seen several large-scale LNG projects taking shape, including five new export terminals coming online in 2018 and 2019. Once in operation, they will make the U.S. one of the top three LNG exporters in the world.Over the years…
BP, Reliance Move Ahead in Deep Water
BP and Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) today announced the sanctioning of the ‘Satellite cluster’ project in Block KG D6. The companies are moving forward to develop the Block’s discovered deep-water gas fields in an integrated series of projects, bringing new gas production for India. The ‘Satellite cluster’ is the second of three projects in the Block KG D6 integrated development. The first of the projects, development of the ‘R-Series’ deep-water gas fields, was sanctioned in June 2017. Together the three projects will develop a total of about 3 trillion cubic feet of discovered gas resources with a total investment of c.
BP Awards Angelin EPCIC Contract to McDermott
McDermott International, Inc. has been awarded an engineering, procurement, construction, installation and commissioning (EPCIC) contract from BP Trinidad & Tobago, LLC (bpTT) for the Angelin gas field, located 25 miles (40 kilometers) off the east coast of Trinidad and Tobago. This EPCIC contract follows the completion of a multi-phase engineering contract, including pre-front end engineering design (pre-FEED), front-end engineering design (FEED), and pre-execution engineering contracts previously awarded by bpTT to McDermott for the initial design and execution planning of Angelin.
BHP Hires Barclays to Divest US Shale Assets
BHP has hired Barclays to divest its U.S. Fayetteville shale gas assets as the miner seeks to fend off an attack by activist funds, two sources close to the matter said on Tuesday. BHP said last month the gas-rich Fayetteville field in Arkansas was under review and that it was "considering all options, including divestment". BHP declined to comment and Barclays was not immediately available for a comment. The miner had tried to sell the business more than two years ago, but the attempt was shelved in February 2015, when it said it planned to "maximise value" of the assets.
ExxonMobil Earns $7.8 Bi in 2016
Exxon Mobil Corporation today announced estimated 2016 earnings of $7.8 billion, or $1.88 per diluted share. An asset recoverability review was completed in the fourth quarter and resulted in a U.S. Upstream asset impairment charge of about $2 billion mainly related to dry gas operations with undeveloped acreage in the Rocky Mountains region of the U.S. Excluding the impairment charge, full year earnings were $9.9 billion compared with $16.2 billion a year earlier, reflecting lower commodity prices and refining margins. Fourth quarter earnings were $1.7 billion, including the impairment charge recorded during the period.
US Natural Gas Storage Hits All-time High
The volume of natural gas in storage in the United States hit a record high last week, despite one of the smallest builds in history during this year's injection season, as production declines for the first time in over a decade. The U.S. Energy Information Administration on Thursday said stockpiles hit 4.017 trillion cubic feet during the week ended Nov. 4, topping the previous all-time high of 4.009 tcf set during the week ended Nov. 20, 2015. This year's high came despite utilities pumping 1.549 tcf into storage…
Technip to Modernize SOCAR Azerikimya Plant, Azerbaijan
Technip has been awarded by SOCAR a contract for Engineering Procurement and Construction (EPC) services for the SOCAR Azerikimya plant, located in the city of Sumgait, Azerbaijan. The scope of work includes the modernization of the EP-300 steam cracker with construction of new cracker furnaces licensed by Technip, as well as the installation of a new refinery dry gas treatment unit, new ethylene and propylene storage and related utilities and off-sites facilities. In addition, the project includes the modernization of the instrumentation and new control system.
U.S. Gas Production May Stabilize: Kemp
U.S. natural gas production may be stabilising or even starting to rise as the boost to oil and gas prices in recent months stimulates an increase in new drilling. Marketed dry gas production amounted to 2,239 billion cubic feet in August, down from 2,302 bcf in August 2015, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (http://tmsnrt.rs/2e9e05u). Gas production has been down year on year by an increasingly large percentage since March as the effect of low prices and a reduction in drilling filters through. Output in July was down by more than 4 percent compared with the same month a year earlier, according to EIA survey data.
Shell Divests Non-core Shale Acreage in Western Canada
Royal Dutch Shell plc, through its affiliate Shell Canada Energy (“Shell”) has announced it has agreed to sell approximately 206,000 net acres of non-core oil and gas properties in Western Canada to Tourmaline Oil Corp. for a total consideration of approximately $1,037 million (C$1,369 million). The consideration is comprised of $758 million in cash and Tourmaline shares valued at $279 million. Subject to regulatory approvals the transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2016. The acreage includes 61…
Falling U.S. Gas Output meets Strong Demand
The U.S. natural gas market is on an unsustainable trajectory as consumption grows rapidly while domestic production is falling. Gas production was down nearly 4 percent in July compared with the same month a year earlier, according to data published by the Energy Information Administration. Marketed dry gas production amounted to 2,212 billion cubic feet in July 2016 compared with 2,304 billion cubic feet in July 2015 (http://tmsnrt.rs/2dKHFan). Low gas prices have discouraged drilling of gas-rich formations and caused production to start falling after rapid growth in 2014 and 2015.
