27 April 2024
Gas Matters Today | news roundup | w/c 6 July 2020
Publication date: 13 July 2020
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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 [2]power source [2], but surging renewables still leave some gas-fired plants out of the money.
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 [3], 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 [4] at an online summit convened by the IEA.
The Global Reporting Initiative has released new draft standards for oil and gas companies [5] reporting the impacts their businesses have on various environmental, social and governance (ESG) topics concerning “the economy, environment, and people”.
Mozambique – Total has declared the construction site of the Mozambique LNG project free of Covid-19 infections [6], but the wider Cabo Delgado province remains a Sars-Cov-2 hotspot.
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 [7].
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 [8] 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 [9], with the move aimed at enhancing competition in the gas market.
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 [10], 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’ [11] to build up green H2 production capacity and develop low-carbon fossil fuel-based hydrogen.
Europe must act to kickstar [12]t its hydrogen economy [12] 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 [13] 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 [14], 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 [15] 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 [16] after project operator Pale Blue Dot Energy was acquired by newly-formed Storegga Geotechnologies, which has received backing from investment fund Macquarie.
Lebanon – The country’s hoped-for hydrocarbons bonanza [17] 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.
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 [18] in Neom – a new mega-city planned in the north-west corner of the kingdom.
US – Dominion Energy has signalled the start of its decarbonisation push after agreeing to sell “substantially all” its gas pipeline and storage assets [19] to Berkshire Hathaway Energy in deal valued at USD 9.7 billion.
Dominion Energy and Duke Energy have also scrapped the Atlantic Coast pipeline [20], 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 [21]could slip to 25% of capacity [21] 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.