LNG

French major TotalEnergies reported a decline in second-quarter earnings led by the company’s liquefied natural gas and the refining and chemicals divisions, while exploration and production performed well.

GALP Energia, the Portuguese oil and gas company which recently agreed to sell its 10 percent stake in the Mozambique LNG project, posted higher adjusted second-quarter net profits.

Santos Ltd, the Australian operator of two liquefied natural gas export plants and a main shareholder in Papua New Guinea LNG assets, has seen its shares surge on take-over speculation, separately involving the Saudi Arabian Oil Company and Abu Dhabi National Oil Company.

Technip Energies, the leading European energy and liquefied natural gas project engineers, reported increased net profits and revenues as the backlog was also boosted by Middle East LNG contract awards in the United Arab Emirates and in Oman.

July 18 (LNGJ) - Indian Oil Corp., the country’s main oil refiner and importer and the owner of the LNG import terminal at Ennore in Kamarajar Port in the East Coast state of Tamil Nadu, has signed separate long-term supply agreements with France’s TotalEnergies and a unit of Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) for a combined 2 million tonnes per annum of deliveries.

   TotalEnergies will supply 800,000 tonnes a year to state-owned Indian Oil for 10 years while the ADNOC subsidiary, Abu Dhabi Gas Liquefaction, will deliver 1.2 MPTA to the Indian refiner under a long-term deal starting in 2026.

Chinese shipyards are benefiting from the surge in orders for newbuilds from the liquefied natural gas sector and more LNG berths are being made available, while oil and petroleum product tankers and containership orders are also increasing.

June 23 (LNGJ) - The “BW Batangas”, the second floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) chartered for a company in the Philippines for an LNG import terminal, has arrived at Batangas Bay, according to shipping data, for an LNG import project with commercial start-up before September.

   The vessel with 162,500 cubic metres of capacity, the renamed “BW Paris”, has been chartered from BW LNG of Singapore by a venture led by Filipino power company First Gen Corp., which has also tendered for a commissioning cargo. The first Philippines floating LNG project started earlier in 2023 and is suppling another local power company SMC Global Power Holdings. This project involves the LNG floating storage unit “Ish” as part of a venture developed by Atlantic, Gulf & Pacific Company near Batangas Bay.

NewMed Energy, the Israeli natural gas company and LNG project developer in the East Mediterranean, said plans for the Aphrodite gas field offshore Cyprus are now focused on transportation of the gas by a pipeline to LNG processing facilities in Egypt.

Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) is proceeding with its plans to offer a minority stake in new subsidiary ADNOC Gas, which consolidates the emirate’s gas processing and LNG operations, through an initial public offering on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange in 2023.

Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) has invited investment banks to pitch for roles in the initial public offering (IPO) of its natural gas business during the first half of 2023.

Several investment banks have been asked for proposals to act as joint global coordinators and bookrunners in the IPO to join New York-based Goldman Sachs as part of a planned banking syndicate, according to bankers familiar with the plans.

Adnoc is combining its gas-processing subsidiary with its main gas export unit, Adnoc LNG, into a single listed entity and has engaged Goldman Sachs as the principal bank to oversee the various transactions.

Adnoc plans to offer investors a minority stake in the new company through an IPO on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange in 2023.

Adnoc LNG was the first production company in the Arabian Gulf and processes feed gas at Das Island, located 160 kilometres (100 miles) off the coast of Abu Dhabi.

The LNG company also supplies one billion standard cubic feet of gas per day to the United Arab Emirates national grid, contributing to Adnoc’s commitment towards gas self-sufficiency in the UAE.

Current stakes

Adnoc LNG is majority owned by the Abu Dhabi-based firm with a 70 percent share of the company. The other shareholders are Japan’s Mitsui & Co with 15 percent, UK major BP with 10 percent and TotalEnergies with 5 percent.

Adnoc said late last month that the consolidation of the two entities would create one of the world’s largest gas-processing companies with a processing capacity of around 10 billion standard cubic feet per day.

Analysts note that Adnoc in the UAE and other nations in the region such as Qatar are overhauling their corporate capabilities to replace all Russian energy imports as early as mid-2024 as Western sanctions were imposed over the Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

The UAE is comprised of seven emirates and the leading energy emirate is Abu Dhabi, which also has the Ghasha mega-project, the world’s largest offshore sour-gas development. 

The emirates, outside of Abu Dhabi, have varying degrees of more limited energy resources in Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman, Umm Al-Quwain, Fujairah and Ras Al Khaimah,

The multi-billion-dollar Ghasha project will play a vital role in meeting the UAE’s gas self-sufficiency objectives.

Adnoc says that the Ghasha mega-project draws on its long-standing sour-gas expertise, including its Shah onshore ultra-sour gas field project, its pioneering work in the creation of artificial islands and the wide and deep sour-gas capabilities of its concession partners.

Adnoc is also currently unlocking potential unconventional gas resources as part of its integrated gas strategy and since late 2019 it has announced the discovery of 160 trillion standard cubic feet of recoverable unconventional gas.