LNG

UK major BP posted solid results as its LNG portfolio increased to 23 million tonnes per annum and fourth-quarter results reflected stronger natural gas marketing and trading activities as well as higher oil prices.

BP has named Canadian Murray Auchincloss as the new Chief Executive with immediate success after he had been fulfilling the role since September 2023 in an interim basis after the surpise departure of the former CEO.

UK major BP posted solid results in the third quarter that saw the Chief Executive resign while in company activities a very strong oil trading result along with higher oil and natural gas production were partly offset by weaker natural gas marketing and trading results.

Sept 13 (LNG) - UK major BP said Chief Executive Bernard Looney had notified the company that he had resigned with immediate effect for telling lies on personal relationships within the company. BP added that Murray Auchincloss, the company’s Chief Financial Officer, would act as CEO on an interim basis. Shareholders had been disappointed by Looney’s nearly four years at the helm during which the shares had risen by just 6 percent compared with double-digit rises in the stock of other energy majors. There are now rising calls for the board to quit as well.

   Looney had been increasingly criticised by shareholders for his cut backs in oil and gas activities and his obsession with receiving praise from social media and “green” groups rather than getting on with the job. Analysts said some of the board should also resign for their neglectful attitudes while BP was now a possible takeover target after years of instability.

UK major BP has entered its third long-term liquefied natural gas offtake contract from the Woodfibre LNG project in the Canadian Pacific Coast province of British Columbia.

“With the additional contract to offtake 450,000 tonnes of LNG per year for 15 years on a free on-board (FOB) basis, all of the LNG production from the Woodfibre LNG export facility is now committed for sale to BP,” said the London-based company.

Woodfibre LNG is a Canadian subsidiary of the Asian group, Pacific Energy Corp. Its main offices are in Singapore and with others in Jakarta, Beijing and Hong Kong.

The latest deal takes BP’s offtake total to 1.95 million tonnes per annum and the remainder on a flexible offtake basis from the plant being built near the town of Squamish in BC.

The North American pipelines and energy company Enbridge is investing to own 30 percent of the C$5.1-billion (US$3.75Bln) Woodfibre project scheduled to enter service in 2027.

Enbridge and Pacific Energy announced that deal in July 2022. Woodfibre LNG will produce a total of 2.1 MTPA of LNG and will have 250,000 cubic metres of storage capacity.

Engineering

The project is now fully underpinned by the long-term offtake agreements with BP. Woodfibre LNG has engaged global engineering and construction company McDermott International to constructed the Woodfibre facilities.

After the latest Woodfibre deal, BP said it continued to look for opportunities across the gas value chain as it sees LNG as an essential part of the energy transition and its own pivot to becoming an integrated energy company.

“As BP works towards building an LNG portfolio of 30 million tonnes by 2030, the additional Canadian west coast supply source expands BP’s flexible, high-quality LNG portfolio and further enhances the company’s capability to meet the growing global natural gas demand,” BP explained.

In addition to securing LNG offtake rights from the project, BP added that it would provide “safe and reliable transportation of gas” to the Woodfibre LNG export facility during the 15-year contact term.

“As the world seeks secure, affordable and lower carbon energy, global demand for LNG is expected to continue to grow and this additional Canadian supply source will further enhance bp’s supply positions in the Pacific region,” said Jonathan Shepard, Vice President for Global LNG Trading and Origination at BP.

“We look forward to continuing our close collaboration with Woodfibre LNG,” stated Shepard.

Reliance Industries Limited, the Indian conglomerate and a leading energy company supplying rising domestic gas volumes to supplement LNG imports, has started up a third gas field in the Krishna Godavari Basin KG-D6 block on the East Coast of India in a joint venture with BP of the UK.

UK major BP posted solid results even amid cash flow declines on lower prices with an exceptional gas marketing and trading result, a lower level of refinery turnarounds and very strong oil trading earnings while progress with made on LNG and gas projects in Africa, India and the East Mediterranean.

The 41st edition of the CERAWeek energy conference in Houston attended by around 6,000 delegates focused on the second day on issues such as European and US natural gas and also on the main Texas commodity - crude oil.

UK major BP posted underlying replacement cost profit, its equivalent of net profits, of $8.2 billion in the third quarter, a two-and-a-half times jump from the $3.3Bln posted in the same three months of 2021.

UK major BP has agreed to acquire Archaea Energy of Houston in Texas for $4.1 billion, comprising $3.3Bln in cash as well as around $800 million of net debt, to increase its presence in the bio-natural gas fuel sector.