LNG

Anticipating the end of BG Singapore Gas Marketing's current quasi monopoly on LNG sales in Singapore, the Energy Market Authority (EMA) has started the selection process to license two importers for the time when the city states' gas demand will rise beyond 3 mtpa.

Jul 21 - The $18.5 billion Santos-led Gladstone LNG project, in which Total and Petronas each have has a 27.5% stake, needs more gas to get off the ground, according to Total's head of upstream oil and gas, Yves-Louis Darricarrere.

"We need and we are ready to buy (more gas) but there is a price limit and it is not really economical (at the moment)," he told Australian media, raising doubt on whether the GLNG project's two trains on Curtis Island can be realised realized as planned.
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Arrow, which has abandoned plans for a stand-alone LNG plant at Gladstone, had been courted by GLNG but no deal is imminent. As an alternative to buying third party gas, GLNG was looking at acquiring more Queensland exploration ground, Darricarrere said.

Californian project developer SCT&E LNG has tripled volumes in its Free Trade Application (FTA) to the Department of Energy from 4 to 12 mtpa of LNG to be exported from Monkey Island, Louisiana.

Corpus Christi Liquefaction, a Cheniere Energy's subsidiary, has agreed to sell Électricité de France about 0.38 mtpa of LNG upon startup of Train 2 of the liquefaction facility being developed near Corpus Christi, Texas. Sales will increase to once Train 3 starts operation as early as 2019.

Project partners in North America rush to bring LNG to market before the Pacific Basin will be awash with Australian cargoes. However, scope for a second wave of projects is limited down under once the ongoing dozen projects are completed, the Economist Intelligence Units' lead energy analyst, Peter Kiernan, told LNG Journal. 

As Asian utility buyers have covered their summer LNG demand, Qatargas is diverting more cargoes to the UK, adding length to an oversupplied market which is likely to exacerbate the 28% drop in gas prices at the NBP since April.

Regulatory findings that Kysuhu Electric Power could safely restart two Japanese nuclear reactors are expected to have merely a marginal effect on the price paid for LNG imports, analysts said. For prices to fall significantly, more of the country's 46 reactors would have to resume operations.

July 16 - South Korea's Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME) has teamed up with classification service provider ABS to jointly develop and build a LNG fuelled drillship.

"We are targeting the Gulf of Mexico as a key market for an LNG fuelled drillship where, given the abundance of affordable shale gas resources in the US, LNG as a marine fuel makes good economic sense," said ABS Vice President, Dr. Hoseong Lee.

British Columbia supports LNG export projects as a "once in a generation" opportunity, according to Rose Klukas, Kitimat's economic development officer; but the clock is ticking as falling gas prices in Asia could close that window of opportunity.

Qatar National Bank analysts expect the Emirate's hydrocarbon production and export capacity to "continue plateauing in the medium term", amid rising domestic demand. There's little room for more Qatari volumes beyond the current 77 mtpa, as cargoes have to compete against an upswing in Australian exports and new ventures in North America and east Africa.