The American Bureau of Shipping, a leading provider of classification services to LNG carriers and floating facilities, has been granted authorization by the Japanese government to serve as a Recognized Organization of the State of Japan.
LNG price differentials widened in the past year as East Asian prices linked to crude oil were last month and earlier ranging from $16 to $18 per million British thermal units.
Tokyo Gas, the second-largest Japanese LNG buyer, said it provided a record daily supply of natural gas to its customers and broke a past record that had stood for five years as it develops more connecting and LNG import infrastructure.
Hawaii will be able to import LNG in containers and regasify it without the need for a permit, the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has ruled.
The US Department of Energy has now received 23 applications for LNG export projects and permits as the push to monetize the nation's shale-gas boom gains momentum.
Woodside Petroleum, the largest Australian LNG operator, posted LNG sales revenue of almost US$830 million in the final three months of 2012 from its single-Train Pluto LNG plant and its one-sixth share of the four-Train North West Shelf plant in Western Australia.
Australian energy company Santos, one of the main LNG players in the Asia-Pacific region, said it gained more fourth-quarter revenue from its Darwin liquefaction plant stake and two new LNG projects at Gladstone in Queensland and in Papua New Guinea were advancing on schedule.
Taylor-DeJongh, the US-based energy investment banking firm served as financial advisor to the Export-Import Bank of the United States for the financing of a $1.8 billion direct loan to BG Group to support US exports for the Queensland Curtis coal-seam-gas to LNG project in eastern Australia.
Inpex, the Japanese energy company LNG project developer, said the shareholders in its Indonesia Abadi Floating LNG project in the Arafura Sea, plan to sell a stake in the venture.
Australia federal and state authorities would be "nuts" to allow Woodside Petroleum to move the $40 billion Browse LNG project plant from a selected onshore site to offshore as a floating LNG facility, Western Australia's Premier Colin Barnett stated.