LNG

Kosmos Energy, the Dallas-based company with LNG interests in the West African nations of Senegal and Mauritania and a specialist company for offshore Atlantic Margins exploration and production, has made a successful start-up of oil production at the Winterfell development in the Green Canyon area of the US Gulf of Mexico.

Indian liquefied natural gas imports went into reverse last month and fell by more than 7 percent even as prices declined and more regasification infrastructure was put in place, while the need for imports was offset by growth in domestic gas output, including coal-bed methane.

UK major BP said the floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel, a key component of the floating LNG development on the maritime border of Senegal and Mauritania in West Africa, has arrived at its final location.

April 24 (LNGJ) - Beach Energy, a partner of Japan’s Mitsui in the delayed Waitsia LNG project in the onshore Perth Basin of Western Australia, reported an increase in sales revenue from a year ago to A$392 million (US$254M) from A$353M in the 2023 quarter. “Our results were overshadowed by the delay to construction of the Waitsia Gas Plant and weather-related impacts to production,” said Beach’s Chief Executive Brett Wood. “The ongoing emergence of quality issues at Waitsia during the pre-commissioning phase is disappointing,” stated the CEO.

   Beach added that in the Perth Basin drilling campaign there were “pleasing results” including a gas discovery at Redback Deep. “Three gas discoveries and one gas development well from our operated campaign is an encouraging outcome which will provide valuable backfill volumes,” Wood said. Beach’s Enterprise well in the Otway Basin of south Australia is also on track to provide a valuable new gas supply source for the East Coast.

Repsol, the Spanish oil and gas company and liquefied natural gas market participant, has acquired a 40 percent stake in Genia Bioenergy, Spain’s main developer of natural gas made from waste to boost its presence in the bio-LNG bunkering sector.

Genia Bioenergy is developing 19 plants producing biogas made from agricultural and livestock waste in Spain and Portugal.

The biogas produced will be used both for Repsol's internal consumption and for marketing to customers. Repsol did not disclose any financial details about the transaction with Genia Bioenergy.

Fuels sector

“This agreement is an important step forward in our strategy to take advantage of substrates and organic waste and transform them into fuels for the home, industry and mobility,” said Juan Abascal, Repsol's Executive Managing Director of Industrial Transformation and the Circular Economy.

Repsol added that Genia Bioenergy is the only Spanish company that integrates the entire biogas and biomethane value chain, from the development of technologies to the engineering and construction and the biological and technical operation at the projects.

The Spanish major explained that the emerging biogas industry in Spain and Portugal will contribute to solving the problem that organic waste currently represents for administrations, since it takes advantage of waste that would otherwise generate emissions into the atmosphere as it degrades in landfills.

It also represents an opportunity to generate economic activity in rural areas.

According to Gabriel Butler, Chief Executive of Genia Bioenergy, the biogas plants will help meet the Iberian Peninsula’s European Union obligations on carbon emissions.

“The development of biomethane plants advances Spain's goal of decarbonization of the economy, reduces its energy dependence on foreign countries and provides a sustainable response to European guidelines on waste management,” said Butler.

Rural economy

“It also means the creation of qualified jobs and the boosting of economic ecosystems around waste, especially in rural environments,” he added.

In the LNG sector, Repsol has been building up its LNG bunkering business in recent years and has an agreement with French company Brittany Ferries to supply its vessels arriving at ports in Spain with LNG fuel.

In conventional LNG trading Repsol is also one of the companies with an as yet unfulfilled sale and purchase agreement with Venture Global of the US for the Calcasieu Pass LNG export plant in Louisiana.

Repsol additionally signed a deal in February 2024 to supply UK utility company Centrica with 1 million tonnes of LNG shipments between 2025 and 2027.

Centrica said at the time that all of these cargoes were expected to be delivered to the UK Grain LNG import terminal located on the Medway River in Kent, southeast England.

Perenco, the European oil and gas company that has recently been increasing its upstream assets, is in talks with BP to acquire gas field interests in the Caribbean LNG exporting nation Trinidad and Tobago.

Venture Global LNG Inc., the US liquefied natural gas developer involved in a dispute with many customers regarding the non-delivery of post-commissioning cargoes from the Calcasieu Pass project in Louisiana, plans to acquire nine LNG carriers to expand its worldwide sales especially of spot shipments.

Kosmos Energy, a shareholder in the floating liquefied natural gas projects offshore Senegal and Mauritania in West Africa and other regional oil and gas ventures in Ghana and Equatorial Guinea, swung to a fourth-quarter profit from a previous loss and reported good progress on the FLNG development alongside UK major BP and advances in the additional Yakaar-Teranga LNG proposal.

The Arabian Gulf state of Qatar said it was going ahead with a third huge expansion project for liquefied natural gas called the North Field West (NFW) project to take overall output to 142 million tonnes per annum by the end of the decade.

Feb 23 (LNGJ) - Flex LNG, the Norwegian shipping company with a fleet of 13 vessels and several chartered to some of the largest market players, has seen the charterer of “Flex Courageous”, known to be BP of the UK, exercise its first extension option. The “Flex Courageous” was fixed on a three-year time charter on November 1, 2021, together with the “Flex Resolute” which was also recently extended by two years until 2027.

   “We are pleased that the charterer of ‘Flex Courageous’ has decided to extend the Time Charter in line with what was recently done for ‘Flex Resolute’. This means that earliest redelivery for the ship is 2027 where the charterer has a further option to extend her until 2029,” said Øystein Kalleklev, Chief Executive of Flex LNG Management AS. “Flex LNG has about 94 percent charter coverage for the remaining part of 2024, so we remain well positioned with only one ship, the ‘Flex Constellation’, coming open during the second quarter,” Kalleklev added.