LNG

China Petroleum and Chemical Corp. (Sinopec), whose LNG assets include a stake in the Australia-Pacific LNG plant in Queensland and an expansion venture in Qatar, said third-quarter net profits increased by 34 percent and revenues also moved higher along with demand for natural gas and refined products.

Revenues from the Australia-Pacific LNG (APLNG) plant in Queensland for the quarter to the end of March declined amid the implementation of the sale of Australia's Origin Energy to Canadian and US funds, Brookfield Asset Management and Washington DC-based EIG.

Elixir Energy Ltd, the Australian-listed exploration and production company, has provide an update on the extended pilot production project underway in its 100-percent owned Nomgon coalbed methane (CBM) production sharing contract in the South Gobi Basin of south Mongolia near the Chinese border.

Origin Energy, the Australian upstream supplier to the Australia-Pacific LNG export plant in Queensland facing a A$18.4 billion (US$12.3 billion) buyout offer from a two-firm consortium led by Canada's Brookfield Asset Management, said the due diligence on the deal was largely completed.

Origin said in a statement to the Australian Securities Exchange that it was continuing its “active engagement” with Brookfield and consortium partner MidOcean Energy, an LNG company formed and managed by US-based energy investor EIG.

“Origin advises that the Consortium has substantially completed due diligence and active engagement continues on a non-exclusive basis in relation to the submission of a binding proposal,” said Origin.

The Sydney-based company noted that any binding proposal would be subject to a number of conditions, including approval by Australian regulators.

“At this stage, shareholders do not need to take any action and Origin will continue to keep shareholders updated in accordance with its continuous disclosure obligations,” said the company.

Origin’s business comprises Integrated Gas with its feed-gas sales to Australia-Pacific LNG and a utilities and domestic power markets unit, the Energy Markets division.

This is made up of retail and wholesale electricity sales and natural gas supplies to the states of Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia.

Targeted

The bid for Origin from Brookfield comes after its offer in 2022 to buy Australia's leading utility, AGL Energy, was rejected.

The Origin buy-out proposal was made through the Brookfield Global Transition Fund, which is co-run by Mark Carney, the former Governor of the Bank of England.

Under the proposal to acquire Origin, Brookfield would take over the company’s Energy Markets business, while MidOcean Energy, in the form of EIG, would take control of Origin's Integrated Gas business, including its 27.5 percent stake in APLNG.

The APLNG plant stake that would go to EIG’s MidOcean under the Origin buy-out is a supplier to China and one of its shareholders is China Petroleum & Chemical Corp, known as Sinopec.

Origin is the main upstream operator for coal-seam gas supply to the facility while US major ConocoPhillips is the plant operator.

APLNG came on stream in 2016 and has two liquefaction Trains with total nameplate capacity of around 9 million tonnes per annum with about 7 MTPA going to China.

The plant sits alongside two other CSG-to-LNG facilities on Curtis Island, the Shell-run Queensland Curtis LNG plant and the Gladstone plant, operated by Santos.

The Australian Government has concluded an agreement with the East Coast LNG exporters in Queensland to ensure that uncontracted gas held by the three export plants in the state would first be offered to the domestic market before being offered to international customers.

Sept 21 (LNGJ) - Origin Energy, the Australian utility, has agreed to sell its 100 percent interest in its Beetaloo Basin shale gas assets in the Northern Territory. Origin said it was exiting its upstream exploration permits but would share any future profits and would retain its valuable Australia Pacific LNG stake in Queensland where it is upstream feed-gas provider and ConocoPhillips is the plant operator.

   The Sydney-based utility said agreements had been reached to sell the Beetaloo assets to Australia’s Tamboran Resources and its partners for A$60 million (US$40.2M) and with a royalty on future production over the life of the field. “Origin has also executed a gas sale agreement for offtake of future gas production,” it added.

Australian exports of liquefied natural gas hit a record high in 2021 to keep the nation in the World No. 1 spot of global exporters from its 10 liquefaction plants in the East and West coasts and in the Northern Territory.

Woodside Petroleum, the Western Australian LNG operator of the North West Shelf plant and Pluto LNG, has signed an agreement to sell US fund Global Infrastructure Partners a 49 percent non-operating participating interest for an agreed initial US$2.744 billion in the Pluto Train 2 joint venture.

Australian wholesale natural gas prices more than doubled year-on-year and the three LNG plants in the state of Queensland shipped record volumes in the July-to-September period because of higher spot LNG prices and firm demand ahead of the North Asia winter.

The Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) said that total East Coast Australia gas demand increased by 5 percent in the third quarter compared with the same period of 2020.

In its third-quarter “Quarterly Energy Dynamics” report, AEMO gave an overview of prices and said that year-to-date demand for LNG from the three state of Queensland export plants, which have a combined nameplate capacity of 25.3 million tonnes per annum, came to over 20.5MT of LNG during the first nine months of 2021.

AEMO noted that the quarterly average prices were at record levels across all East Coast gas markets, averaging $10.74 per gigajoule (GJ) compared with $4.47 per GJ in the third quarter of 2020.

“It is the first time every market has averaged over $10 per GJ,” said the report.

The various Australian wholesale natural gas markets saw prices rising in Adelaide by 113 percent, Brisbane by 155 percent and Sydney logging an increase of 156 percent.

“Queensland LNG exports continue to be influenced by strong Asian LNG demand and record high international gas prices,” said the AEMO report.

“Demand for Queensland LNG is usually lower in the Northern Hemisphere summer but Q3 2021 demand was the highest Q3 on record, and the fourth highest quarter on record,” it added.

“Year-to-date demand has totalled 1,038 PJ, the first time demand has exceeded 1,000 PJ in the first three quarters of the calendar year and is tracking 62 PJ higher than the previous record in 2019,” stated AEMO.

By participant, the Santos-operated Gladstone Liquified Natural Gas (GLNG) recorded the largest increase of 27.7 PJ, while Shell’s Queensland Curtis LNG (QCLNG) increased by 2.4 PJ, and Australia-Pacific LNG (APLNG), operated by ConocoPhillips, increased by 2.1 PJ.

The report added that there were 87 LNG cargoes exported from Queensland  in the July-September quarter, up from 78 in the same period in 2020.

The number of GLNG cargoes exported increased from 21 to 29 over the same period, QCLNG cargoes numbers rose from 28 to 29, while APLNG cargoes numbers were unchanged at 29.

Royal Dutch Shell has sold a minority stake in a Queensland Curtis LNG export plant subsidiary in Queensland, the first coal-seam-gas-to-LNG facility to come on stream in 2014 and whose other project shareholder include China National Offshore Oil Corp.