LNG

Centrica Plc, the UK owner of the British Gas utility business and an LNG importer, has released stored gas into the grid from the Rough Gas Storage system for the first time this winter season.

Enagás, the Spanish gas grid and terminals operator, said the El Musel liquefied natural gas re-loading facility in Northwest Spain designated to supply the European Union has received its first cargo that was loaded on the US Gulf Coast.

Enagás has re-activated the existing El Musel terminal on the Bay of Biscay to meet growing LNG needs in the EU after the closure of Russian pipeline gas supplies and a commissioning cargo was delivered by the 174,000 cubic metres capacity carrier “Cool Racer”.

Shipping data showed that the cargo had been lifted from the Calcasieu Pass export plant in Louisiana on June 16. 

The Spanish terminal in the Port of Gijón will contribute up to 8 billion cubic metres of additional LNG to Europe’s supply when commercial operations start.

“The unloading of this first LNG vessel is a necessary prior step, from a technical point of view, before the final start-up as a logistics plant,” said Enagás.

Enagás has already conducted the second phase of a capacity allocation process, or open season, for El Musel after interest was expressed by 16 trading companies.

The binding phase just closed on June 30 after receiving binding offers from marketers for the capacity offered by the terminal.

Cool-down process

“As part of the usual technical process in this type of start-up operation, the initial cold start-up with liquid nitrogen of the infrastructure has already been carried out, prior to the arrival of the ship,” said Enagás.

“The LNG from the ship gradually replaces the inert gas (nitrogen) inside the tanks. With this, a progressive cooling of the tanks occurs until reaching cryogenic temperatures in which LNG can be stored at minus-160ºC,” Enagás explained.

The aim of the logistical use of the El Musel facility is to contribute energy supply to the EU because of the end of dependence on Russian pipeline natural gas after the events such as sanctions and retaliatory pipeline shutdowns that followed Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

El Musel will specialise in the unloading of LNG carriers from various producing countries and the rapid re-loading of ships for different European destinations.

The terminal berthing can accommodate the largest vessels and it has two storage tanks each with capacity of 150,000 cubic metres.

The re-opening of El Musel is part of the Spanish Government’s “More Energy Security Plan” and will add to Spain’s role as an energy hub for Europe as the nation also receives pipeline gas imports from Algeria.

Enagás operates six other LNG regasification terminals on mainland Spain.

It owns five of those terminals at Barcelona in the northeast, at Cartagena in the southeast, at Sagunto in the east of Spain, at Huelva in the southwest as well as the El Musel facility.

Enagás additionally holds a 50 percent stake at another northwest facility serving the northwest port of Bilbao and owns two small regasification terminals in the Canary Islands.

Italian energy company Eni has explained the strategy behind its agreed acquisition for $4.9 billion of UK-based Neptune Energy, which is controlled by equity funds and owns key global LNG stakes and gas field assets in Algeria, Indonesia, Norway, the UK, the Netherlands and Australia.

Jan 5 (LNGJ) - Occidental Petroleum Corp., whose main shareholders include US investor Warren Buffett, said it had paid off debts after also completing a $3 billion share repurchase program. “During fiscal year 2022, Occidental repaid over $10.5 billion of debt, including over $1.1Bln in the fourth quarter, reducing the face value of its debt to below $18Bln,” said the company.

Occidental added that the December winter storm in the US affected production. “While normal operations have resumed, average Permian Basin and Rockies production in the fourth quarter is expected to be impacted by a combined 10,000 barrels equivalent per day. Occidental also holds stakes in Algerian oil and natural gas fields.

Italian energy company Eni said Italy needed to significantly increase its LNG import capacity as in 2023 Russian natural gas imports will be in single digits compared with a year-ago and the amounts could be down to zero.

Eni Chief Executive Claudio Descalzi said at a business event in Milan that for security of supplies Italy would need four LNG import facilities rather than the three currently operating.

“The change in the flow of natural gas from Russia means Italy must expand its energy infrastructure in the South to eliminate bottlenecks in the gas grid and to enlarge its storage system,” explained Descalzi.

The Eni CEO noted that natural gas flows from Russian sources had fallen from around 38 percent of Italy's total consumption to around 10 percent in recent months.

“Next year, we expect Russian natural gas be around 6 percent to 7 percent of the total, if even that,” he added.

The country currently has three LNG terminals, which have a capacity of around 17 billion cubic metres of gas.

Operators

SNAM, the gas gride operator whose name comes from Societa Nazionale Metanodotti (National Pipeline Company), operates the onshore Panigaglia LNG facility as well as having a controlling stake in the LNG facility, the “FSRU Toscana”, the floating storage and regasification unit moored off the Italian port of Livorno.

In addition to these two terminals, there is also the offshore Adriatic LNG facility owned  by units of QatarEnergy and ExxonMobil and receiving cargoes from Qatar and other sources.

SNAM has also agreed to purchase two FSRUs for deployment on the East and West coasts of Italy, though Eni believes a further two terminals are needed to give the country a total of seven LNG facilities.

Grid company SNAM also intends to invest more than €3 billion ($3.11Bln) to boost gas network efficiency and to construct more gas storage sites.

SNAM is bringing two FSRU into the Mediterranean to increase the quantities of LNG available, including the FSRU “BW Singapore” from BW Group of Singapore.

It has also bought the “Golar Tundra” for $350M from shipping group Golar LNG.

Italy is additionally seeking more pipeline gas from Algeria, while continuing to receive volumes on the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline from Azerbaijan.

“We have moved from Russian gas coming from pipelines to gas coming on ships,” explained Descalzi.

“We currently don't have enough LNG terminals so we believe that we need four additional facilities,” added the Eni CEO.

Oct 28 (LNGJ) - Italian energy major Eni posted an almost five-fold increase in third-quarter net profits to €5.86 ($5.87M) compared with €1.20Bln in the same three months of 2021. “We plan to replace at least 50 percent of Russian gas flows this winter, leveraging on our broad and diversified reserve base, our long-standing relationships with producing countries and our growing presence in LNG,” said Eni Chief Executive Claudio Descalzi.

   “In the quarter we further enhanced our position in the gas supply chain via our exploration activities, the upstream acquisition of BP assets in Algeria and, on the midstream side, the purchase of the ‘Tango FLNG’ liquefaction vessel as part of the Congo gas valorization project,” added the CEO.

Italian oil and gas company and LNG project developer Eni said on July 11 that the Russian pipeline gas company Gazprom was further reducing its supplies.

Sept 13 (LNGJ) - Sonatrach, the state-owned Algerian supplier of pipeline natural gas to Europe and LNG cargoes from its Arzew and Skikda export plants, has issued a new code of ethics to achieve more transparency.

   “The Group's ethics are reflected first and foremost in our commitment to conduct our activities with integrity, transparency, fairness and excellence to enable our company to accomplish its mission in the service of the development and prosperity of the country,” stated Chief Executive Toufik Hakkar. “This code is the fruit of a collective reflection around the values and principles which should guide our behavior and inspire our decisions, in order to strengthen the confidence of stakeholders,” added Hakkar.

The bidding battle last year between Occidental Petroleum and Chevron Corp. for Anadarko Petroleum and its prized Mozambique LNG stake has brought a sharp change in fortunes for winner Occidental.

Italian energy company Eni and Sonatrach, the Algerian state-run company and LNG producer, have completed the construction of the natural gas pipeline connecting the Bir Rebaa Nord and Menzel Ledjmet Est fields in the Berkine Basin in southeast Algeria.