Sunday, December 22, 2024

Natural Gas News

Shell LNG Trading Gives Quarterly Boost

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Earnings from Shell's liquefied natural gas (LNG) trading operations are likely to have been significantly higher in the fourth quarter of last year despite a sharp output drop owing to plant outages, it said on Friday.Europe's largest oil and gas company's update ahead of its full-year results on Feb. 2 also said it expects to pay about $2 billion in additional 2022 taxes related to the European Union and British…

US Looking to Increase Gas Products Into Europe Amid Russia Cuts

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The United States will keep looking for ways to increase gas products going into Europe in the face of Russian energy cuts after its invasion of Ukraine, the White House said on Wednesday."President Putin again is weaponizing energy," White House national security spokesman John Kirby said at a news briefing.(Reuters - Reporting by Jeff Mason and Doina Chiacu;)

Price is the Elephant in Australia's LNG, Domestic Gas Conundrum

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Australia's threat to curb exports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) in order to ensure domestic supplies is another unwelcome pressure on a tight global market for the super-chilled fuel.But it's not an immediate threat, and it may also not materialize at all, depending on how the various players in Australia react to the government's planned action.What needs to be addressed effectively is the elephant in the room, namely the price at which natural gas is made available to domestic consumers relative to the pri

LNG Demand to Rise 25-50% By 2030 - Morgan Stanley

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Demand for liquefied natural gas (LNG) is expected to rise by 25 to 50% by 2030, making it the fastest growing hydrocarbon over the next decade, analysts from Morgan Stanley Research said in a note on Monday.Morgan Stanley has raised its long-term LNG price outlook to $10 per million British thermal units (mmBtu), expecting spot prices of the super-chilled fuel to average 40% higher over the next decade, versus…

Cheniere Expects Rising LNG Demand with Vaccine Rollout

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Cheniere Energy Inc, the top U.S. liquefied natural gas producer, on Wednesday raised its full-year adjusted earnings forecast, predicting higher demand for the fuel as COVID-19 vaccinations boost economic recovery.Lockdown measures implemented to curb the pandemic slashed demand for energy and hurt prices for natural gas in 2020. But with economic recovery in Asia, particularly in China, fuel sales have picked up.Shares rose 1% to $70.37 in midday trading…

Oil Search Q2 Revenue Falls About 30%

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Australia-listed Oil Search Ltd on Tuesday reported a near 30% drop in second-quarter revenue, hurt by a sharp decline in oil and gas prices as demand plunged due to the coronavirus pandemic.The Papua New Guinea-focused oil and gas explorer recorded a revenue of $266.2 million for the three months ended June, down from $378.9 million a year earlier.UBS analysts had forecast revenue of $267 million.(Reporting by Shruti Sonal and A K Pranav; Editing by Himani Sarkar)

Santos Flags $560 Mln Impairment Charge on Virus-led Oil Slump

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Australia's Santos said on Tuesday it will book non-cash impairments of up to $560 million after tax, joining a number of global energy majors forced to write down assets after a coronavirus-induced slump in oil prices.The country's second-largest independent gas producer expects to record non-cash charges of between $490 million and $560 million after tax in its 2020 interim results, it said in a statement.Most…

Chevron CEO Sees Continued 'Choppy Economic and Price Activity'

Mike Wirth (Photo: Chevron)

The chief executive of U.S. oil giant Chevron Corp on Monday said the uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic has it planning for "choppy" oil prices and economic activity globally.Chevron said on Monday it would buy oil and gas producer Noble Energy Inc for about $5 billion in stock, the first big energy deal since the coronavirus crisis started."The crystal ball is cloudy right now," Mike Wirth said in an interview.

Gazprom Aims to Increase Gas Supplies to China

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Russia's Gazprom is committed to supply as much as 130 billion cubic meters of gas (bcm) to China annually in the longer term, a company official told a conference call on Tuesday.Gazprom currently supplies gas to China via the Power of Siberia pipeline which is yet to reach its full capacity of 38 bcm per year. Gazprom plans to add another 6 bcm to Power of Siberia and is in talks over a number of additional routes, the official said.(Reporting by Olesya Astakhova Writing by Katya Golubkova.

US LNG Exports Drop More Than a Third

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U.S. liquefied natural gas exports are down by more than a third since governments started imposing lockdowns to stop the spread of the coronavirus.Worldwide gas prices have plunged as lockdowns squeezed energy demand even as strong renewables output boosted supply. Gas prices are more expensive now in the United States than in Europe for the first time in a decade.Buyers in Asia and Europe have already canceled over 20 U.S.

Coronavirus Paralyzes Oil, Gas Sales into China

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Short-term sales of crude oil and liquefied natural gas into China almost ground to a halt this week as the coronavirus slows economic activity and cuts demand and buyers ponder legal action to avoid having to honor purchase agreements, trade sources said.Typically, trade would have revived after the Lunar New Year holiday at the end of January, but China has extended the break into February to try to contain the fast-spreading coronavirus…

PGNiG Open to Mergers with State-run Firms

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Polish gas company PGNiG is open to consolidation with other energy companies, its newly appointed chief executive said on Friday, as the government tries to merge state-run firms to strengthen their market position.The Polish state is a major shareholder in the energy sector, which is undergoing unprecedented consolidation, with PKN Orlen planning to take over refiner Lotos and state utility Energa.Poland's government plans to merge the country's two biggest refiners to create a bigger player capable of compe

Aramco Sells LNG Cargo to S-Oil

Aramco Trading Co, the trading arm of oil giant Saudi Aramco, has sold a liquefied natural gas (LNG) cargo to South Korea's S-Oil Corp, as the company looks to ramp up its LNG business, four industry sources said on Wednesday.The cargo is for delivery in early March and was traded on a delivered ex-ship (DES) basis, the sources said.The cargo was sold at around $4.40 to $4.60 per million British thermal units (mmBtu), two of the sources said, though this could not immediately be confirmed.Companies typically d

'Power of Siberia' Pipeline Begins Flow to China

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China has started to consume Russian gas via the newly launched "Power of Siberia" pipeline, said CNPC-backed Kunlun Energy Ltd, operator of the pipeline in China, on Wednesday.The company receives 250,000-300,000 cubic meters of pipeline gas daily from Russia, helping to ease tight gas supply in winter season in Harbin, provincial capital of the north-most region Heilongjiang.The 3,000-km (1,864 mile) pipeline, launched in December, is expected to transmit 4.6 billion cubic meters (bcm) of natural gas from Ru

Indonesia Plans New Gas Pricing for Industrial Users

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Indonesia plans to unveil a new gas pricing policy for industrial customers in March in a bid to lower energy costs for manufacturers, Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Arifin Tasrif said on Thursday.Indonesia's President Joko Widodo earlier this week asked his cabinet to come up with a strategy to lower gas prices for manufacturers to around $6 per million British thermal units (mmbtu).Manufacturers have been complaining about gas prices running at about $8-$9 per mmbtu…

Putin, Merkel Pledge Support to Nord Stream 2

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Russian President Vladimir Putin and his German counterpart Angela Merkel agreed to further support the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project in a phone call on Sunday, the Kremlin said.Putin and Merkel also agreed there was a need to boost political and diplomatic efforts to solve the Libyan crisis, while the two leaders welcomed the prisoner swap in Ukraine, which took place earlier on Sunday.(Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin, Editing by William Maclean)

Egypt Lowers Gas Grid Usage Fees

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Egypt has lowered the usage fees for its national gas grid by 24% to reach $0.29 per mmbtu, the national gas regulator said on its website on Sunday.Egypt had first set the usage fees at $0.38 per mmbtu in Aug. 2018 for a year.(Reporting by Ehab Farouk and Ahmed Ismail Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky)

Nigeria LNG Inks FID for Train 7

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Nigeria LNG (NLNG) signed a long-awaited final investment decision on its Train 7 processing unit in Abuja on Friday, taking a step forward in increasing its liquefied natural gas production.NNPC and partners Eni, Total and Shell attended the signing ceremony for Train 7, which is expected to boost Nigeria's LNG output by 35% to 30 million tonnes per year.The agreement is a bright spot for Nigeria, a nation rich in oil and gas that has been working for years…

Russia Says Nord Stream 2 Will Be Ready in Months

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Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said on Monday that the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline would be completed in a matter of months and U.S. sanctions imposed on the project last week would not be "catastrophic".Russia's new gas transit deal with Ukraine would also mollify the impact on Russian gas supplies of U.S. sanctions introduced on the pipeline project, he said.Last week a major contractor suspended work on the Nord Stream 2 project, which is led by Russia's Gazprom, due to U.S.

Allseas Suspends Nord Stream 2 Work

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Swiss-Dutch company Allseas said last week it had suspended its pipe-laying activities in the Nord Stream 2 Russia-to-Germany natural gas pipeline in anticipation of U.S. President Donald Trump's signing of a defense policy bill."In anticipation of the enactment of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), Allseas has suspended its Nord Stream 2 pipelay activities," the company said in a statement dated Dec.