13
Jul
2020

Gas Matters Today | news roundup | w/c 6 July 2020

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Analysis

Near-record EU carbon prices have pushed coal-fired generation to the margins in many European markets, potentially opening the way for gas to become the primary power source, but surging renewables still leave some gas-fired plants out of the money.

International

New York-based energy infrastructure player New Fortress Energy has agreed to pay USD 105 million to Centrica to cancel LNG purchases for the remainder of 2020, allowing NFE to tap “significantly cheaper” volumes from the spot market.

Ministers from major energy-consuming economies around the world last week queued up to extoll the virtues of clean energy initiatives, but paid scant regard to the future role of gas and LNG at an online summit convened by the IEA.

The Global Reporting Initiative has released new draft standards for oil and gas companies reporting the impacts their businesses have on various environmental, social and governance (ESG) topics concerning “the economy, environment, and people”.

Africa

Mozambique – Total has declared the construction site of the Mozambique LNG project free of Covid-19 infections, but the wider Cabo Delgado province remains a Sars-Cov-2 hotspot.

Asia Pacific

China – South Korea’s SK E&S has agreed to supply LNG to Chinese holding company Beijing Gas Blue Sky Holdings (BGBS) and buy a 30% stake in three BGSH distribution subsidiaries in a set of deals that could help the BGSH become China’s top integrated gas operator.

BP has penned a gas supply deal with Chinese independent energy player ENN, under which the British major will become the first foreign firm to regasify LNG through a terminal in China and directly supply gas to customers, BP said last Thursday.

Singapore – The city-state’s Energy Market Authority has issued a Request for Proposal to appoint up to two new term LNG importers, with the move aimed at enhancing competition in the gas market.

Europe

EU – An EU parliamentary committee has voted to allow the EU’s USD 45 billion Just Transition Fund to invest in “environmentally sustainable” gas projects, despite NGOs lobbying MEPs to ensure the fund excludes all fossil fuels.

The European Commission has unveiled plans to channel up to USD 560 billion into hydrogen as part of a landmark ‘Hydrogen Strategy’ to build up green H2 production capacity and develop low-carbon fossil fuel-based hydrogen.

Europe must act to kickstart its hydrogen economy and ensure a cost-effective energy transition in which unabated natural gas “can only play a bridging, transitional role”, EC gas and electricity chief Florian Ermacora said during a webinar last Thursday.

Denmark – Pipelaying on the stalled Nord Stream 2 pipeline could restart in early August after the Danish Energy Agency approved a request for the project to use anchored pipe-laying vessels to complete the remaining stretch offshore Denmark.

Germany – Siemens shareholders have voted 99.36% to spin-off the company’s faltering energy business, made up of its gas and power segment and its 67% stake in wind turbine company Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy.

Turkey – Turkey’s largest construction company ENKA plans to install a new FSRU and is seeking regulatory approval to use the vessel to supply gas to a nearby 1.5 GW CCGT plant and add gas to the national grid, according to reports.

UK – The proposed Acorn CCS project is set for a cash boost after project operator Pale Blue Dot Energy was acquired by newly-formed Storegga Geotechnologies, which has received backing from investment fund Macquarie.

Mediterranean

Lebanon – The country’s hoped-for hydrocarbons bonanza will barely make a dent Lebanon’s massive public debt, according to a report cited by the Lebanese Oil & Gas Initiative, which has for several years sought to influence energy policy.

Middle East

Saudi Arabia – Top global hydrogen supplier Air Products and Saudi duo ACWA Power and Neom have agreed to build the world’s largest green hydrogen project in Neom – a new mega-city planned in the north-west corner of the kingdom.

North America

US – Dominion Energy has signalled the start of its decarbonisation push after agreeing to sell “substantially all” its gas pipeline and storage assets to Berkshire Hathaway Energy in deal valued at USD 9.7 billion.

Dominion Energy and Duke Energy have also scrapped the Atlantic Coast pipeline, citing ongoing “litigation risk” from environmental pressure groups that renders the long-delayed USD 8 billion project “too uncertain to justify investing more shareholder capital”.

US LNG exports could slip to 25% of capacity utilisation in July and August, according to the EIA, which estimates that over 110 US LNG cargoes have been cancelled for the June-August period.

Contact the editor:

Sebastian Kennedy
[email protected]

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