Maryland Cove Point LNG Export Plant of Berkshire Hathaway shut down for maintenance
According to a notice sent to customers, U.S. energy company Berkshire Hathaway Energy closed its Cove Point LNG export plant in Maryland during the annual autumn maintenance period of about three weeks. According to data from the financial firm LSEG, the amount of natural gases flowing into the plant has dropped to almost zero since August 1, when it averaged around 0.7 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd). Since mid-October 2023, when it was returned to service from its previous autumn maintenance outage, the plant has averaged around 0.8 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) of LNG.
NYK Signs Multi-Year Deal with GAIL (India) Limited for Charter of LNG Carrier
NYK signed a multi-year time-charter contract with GAIL (India) Limited, India's largest natural gas company, for a liquefied natural gas (LNG) carrier. Grace Emilia, the vessel that will be chartered, is equipped with a WinGD-made dual-fuel slow-speed X-DF diesel engine, a unit that has superior fuel-consumption efficiency and can operate on marine gas oil or boil off gas stored in the cargo tank. The vessel also features a re-liquefaction system that can use re-liquefied excess boil-off gas and return it to the cargo tank.The cargo tank has a 174,000 cu.
India to End Federal Control of Gas prices, Lift LNG transport Use
India will gradually end federal controls on gas pricing as it seeks to attract foreign investment and technology to lift local output, oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan said on Friday.India, which is a large emitter of greenhouse gases and has multiple gas pricing regimes, aims to raise the share of gas in its energy mix to 15% by 2030, from 6.2%."This is an incentive we are giving to investors to come to India and take advantage of pricing and marketing freedom and produce more and invest more," Pradhan said at the BNEF summit.To boost gas usage…
Virus Lockdowns Pummel Global Gas Demand, Force LNG Output Cuts
Lockdowns to slow the coronavirus pandemic are pummelling gas demand in the world's biggest buyers of liquefied natural gas (LNG), pushing Asia's spot prices to record lows and forcing some suppliers to start cutting output. Economies worldwide have ground to a halt as virus containment measures have taken their toll, slashing gas demand for power generation, heating, cooking, vehicles and chemical manufacture. The world's biggest LNG markets - Japan, China, South Korea, and India - are all seeing a drop in demand.
Indian LNG Importers Issue Force Majeure Notices
Indian liquefied natural gas (LNG) importers have started to issue force majeure notices as domestic gas demand slumps and as port operations in the country get hit by a lockdown to curb the spread of coronavirus, sources told Reuters."Demand has reduced drastically and it is likely to go down further, a company source with Gail (India) said."Only fertilizer, power and refineries are running at parcel loads.
India to Lead Asia New-Build Pipeline Growth
India is expected to lead Asia’s oil and gas new-build trunk/pipeline length additions, contributing around 53 percent of Asia’s planned and announced pipeline length additions between 2019 and 2023.According to a report from GlobalData, India is expected to have new-build pipeline length of 23,360.6 km by 2023.Varun Ette, Oil and Gas Analyst at GlobalData, said: “In India, 42 new-build pipelines are set to start operations by 2023, out of which 29 are planned and remaining 13 are from early-stage announced pipelines. Jagdishpur–Haldia is the longest upcoming pipeline in the country with a length of 2,655.0 km.
Gail Offers 10 U.S. LNG Cargoes
Gail India on Wednesday offered 10 cargoes of liquefied natural gas (LNG) loading in the United States, three trade sources said.The cargoes are offered for loading between June 2019 and March 2020 on a free-on-board basis, meaning buyers will have to arrange shipping.The Indian importer has 20-year deals to buy 5.8 million tonnes a year of U.S. LNG, split between Dominion Energy's Cove Point plant and Cheniere Energy's Sabine Pass site.The tender closes on April 29.Reporting by Ekaterina Kravtsova and Sabina Sawadzki
India's Vedanta Wins 41 Blocks in Small Field Auction
India's Vedanta Wins 41 Blocks in Small Field Auction* Billionaire Anil Agarwal-led Vedanta Ltd has won 41 of the 55 blocks auctioned under India's first licensing round for small discovered fields-India's upstream regulator* State-run Oil India has won nine blocks- upstream regulator* India's top explorer Oil and Natural Gas Corp was awarded 2 blocks* Hindustan Oil Exploration Co, and GAIL (India) Ltd and Bharat Petro Resources Ltd, the upstream unit of state refiner Bharat Petroleum Corp, have won one block each* Directorate General of Hydrocarbons published the list of awards on TuesdayReporting by Nidhi Verma
India's GAIL Turns to Spot and Short-term LNG Deals
Indian gas utility GAIL (India) has switched its focus to short-term and spot deals for the purchase of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to meet rising demand and hedge against price volatility, its chairman said.The move from longer-term deals comes as India builds infrastructure, including pipelines and import facilities, to raise the share of gas in its energy mix to 15 percent by 2030 from the current level of about 6.5 percent."Today the market is moving from long-term (deals) to short term and spot. So we are buying short-term and are also looking at the swap (deals)," said B.
First Cove Point LNG Lifting Departs Maryland
The first contractual liquefied natural gas (LNG) cargo from Dominion Energy Inc's newly constructed Cove Point LNG export plant in Maryland in the United States left the facility on Monday, Thomson Reuters Eikon ship tracking data showed. The cargo is expected to act as a drag on spot LNG prices <LNG-AS> as it coincides with the resumption of exports of the fuel from the Papua New Guinea LNG plant, which had been shut following a powerful earthquake. The 160,000-cubic metre LNG tanker Adam LNG left Cove Point on Monday with a draft of 91 percent, suggesting it was full, according to the data.
GAIL to Start Importing LNG Under Gazprom Deal
GAIL (India) to begin getting liquefied natural gas (LNG) under reworked deal with Gazprom from May, India's oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan told lawmakers on Wednesday GAIL signed a 2.5 million tonnes a year LNG import deal with Gazprom in 2012 Supplies under the reworked deal will be gradually ramped up and likely to reach full volumes in 5-6 years, Pradhan said GAIL and Gazprom in January renegotiated the gas purchase deal including pricing Reporting by Nidhi Verma
GAIL India to get 90 LNG Cargos from U.S. in 2018
India's state-owned GAIL (India) Ltd on Friday said it would be annually receiving about 90 cargoes of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Sabine Pass and Cove Point LNG terminals in the U.S. GAIL has long-term deals to annually buy 5.8 million tonnes U.S. LNG. GAIL would be procuring about $2 billion worth of LNG per annum from USA from the fiscal year 2018/19. GAIL on Saturday received its first consignment of LNG from the U.S. under the long-term deals at Dabhol terminal in western India. Reporting by Nidhi Verma
Gail India Offers Sabine Pass LNG Liftings
Gail India has offered three liquefied natural gas (LNG) cargoes for May to July loading from Sabine Pass in the United States, two traders said on Tuesday. The cargoes will be sold based on the U.S. benchmark Henry Hub gas price, one of them said. The tender closes on March 29 with same-day validity, the trader added. The Indian importer has 20-year deals to buy 5.8 million tonnes per annum of U.S. LNG in total, split between Dominion Energy's Cove Point plant and Cheniere Energy's Sabine Pass. Reporting by Jessica Jaganathan
First LNG from Cheniere US to GAIL India
Cheniere Energy and GAIL (India) today marked the commencement of their 20-year Sale and Purchase Agreement (SPA) to supply U.S.-sourced liquefied natural gas to India from Cheniere’s Sabine Pass liquefaction facility in Louisiana, with one of GAIL’s first shipments departing from the facility. The ship will set sail after today’s ceremony to mark the occasion at Sabine Pass in the presence of Cheniere President and CEO Jack Fusco and GAIL Chairman and Managing Director Mr. B.C. Tripathi, who were joined by Consul General Dr. Anupam Ray, as well as representatives from Cheniere and GAIL.
Vessel Docks at Maryland Cove Point LNG Terminal
Gemmata could be the first vessel to pick up fuel from the facility since the tanker came from Spain - a non-LNG exporting country - with less than a full cargo, according to the shipping data. In addition to Gemmata, another vessel, the Methane Spirit, is also headed for Cove Point, according to the shipping data. Methane Spirit is located near Singapore and is expected to reach Cove Point around March 31. Once it enters service, Cove Point will be the second big LNG export terminal in the lower 48 U.S. Cove Point is designed to liquefy about 0.75 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) of gas.
Cheniere's LA Sabine Pass LNG Output Dips
The volume of gas flowing into the facility dropped from about 3.2 billion cubic feet per day on Wednesday to 2.8 bcfd on Thursday and a projected 1.5 bcfd on Friday, Reuters data showed. One bcfd is enough gas to fuel about five million U.S. homes. The plant had been operating near full capacity with about 3.2 bcfd of gas flowing in since mid-January when freezing water during a brutal cold snap forced the company to briefly reduce operations. Officials at Cheniere would not comment on the latest reduction. Earlier this week, the company said its operations were not affected following an order on Feb.
Cove Point LNG Terminal's First Export Imminent
Methane Spirit, a liquefied natural gas tanker, said on Thursday it would arrive at Dominion Energy Inc's Cove Point LNG export facility in Maryland around March 31, according to Reuters shipping data. If correct, that could be the first vessel to pick up a cargo from the LNG facility, which Virginia-based Dominion said it expects to enter service in March. Dominion said it planned to spend $4 billion to add export facilities at Cove Point, long an LNG import terminal on the Chesapeake Bay. The Methane Spirit is currently off the coast of Japan where it was expected to drop off a cargo from Australia…
LNG Rebounds as Asian Buyers Replenish Inventory
Interest for prompt spot cargoes still keen; demand could roll over to April. Asian spot liquefied natural gas (LNG) prices rebounded this week as persistently cold weather in North Asia forced buyers to enter the spot market to replenish inventory. Spot prices for March <LSG-AS> delivery in Asia climbed 40 cents to $10.60 per million British thermal units (mmBtu) this week, according to several LNG traders in Asia. Cargoes for delivery in the first half of March are trading between $10.70 and $11 per mmBtu while cargoes for the second half of the month are trading at just above $10 a barrel, they said.
Gail India Seeks to Shed 24 U.S. LNG Cargoes
Gail India launches tender to sell 24 liquefied natural gas (LNG) cargoes from the Cove Point export facility in the United States in 2019-2020, according to trade sources. The tender is split into three tranches, with the first tranche offering six cargoes in the first half of 2019, six in H2 2019, and 12 in 2020, traders said . Prospective buyers must bid for all the cargoes in any given tranche. Gail purchased 2.3 million tonnes annually from Dominion Energy's Cove Point export plant, with an added 3.5 million tonnes annually due from Cheniere Energy's Sabine Pass facility in Louisiana.
Asian LNG Spot Prices Jump on Chinese, Japanese Demand
Asian LNG spot prices jumped this week on strong demand from core importing countries including China and Japan. Spot prices <LNG-AS> for February delivery leapt 70 cents to $11.20 per million British thermal units (mmBtu). Malaysia's Petronas sold a January cargo to Japanese trading giant JERA an estimated $11 per mmBtu, trade sources said. JERA is contracted to take 5.2 million tonnes per year of LNG from Chevron's Wheatstone export project which has been offline for the past four weeks as part of the plant's complex start up procedure. New projects routinely go offline during the commissioning phase when equipment is tested.
