LNG

French major TotalEnergies has signed an agreement to acquire all of Malaysian independent gas producer and operator Sapura-OMV Upstream, a Malaysian-Austrian joint venture and some of whose feed-gas assets are delivered to the Bintulu LNG plant.

Feb 29 (LNGJ) - A Japanese consortium of LNG and energy players has signed a storage site agreement with Malaysia’s Petronas and Petroleum Sarawak (Petros) for the depleted M3 gas field that previously supplied the Bintulu LNG export plant and will now be used as part of a carbon-capture and storage project.

   Japan Petroleum Exploration Co., engineering firm JGC Holdings Corp and shipping company Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha (K-LINE) signed the accord. “This collaboration represents a significant advancement in the efforts to reduce greenhous-gas emissions in the Asia Pacific region, including Malaysia and Japan,” said the companies.

Osaka Gas, a leading Japanese LNG importer, reported a 43 percent increase in consolidated net sales for the fiscal year to the end of March 2023, mainly due to higher prices for city-gas in Japan, though profits fell year-on-year because of the shut-down of Freeport LNG in Texas for most of the year from June and the higher cost of replacement cargoes.

Osaka Gas, which is part of the Daigas Group, increased annual sales to 2.27 trillion yen ($16.8 billion), up from 1.59 trillion yen ($11.8Bln) in the previous fiscal year.

The utility’s gross annual profits dropped to 282.2 billion yen ($2.09Bln) from 314.2Bln yen ($2.33Bln) in the 2021-2022 fiscal year.

Ordinary profits declined by 33.5 percent on the year to $74.65Bln yen ($560.8M) versus 113.52Bln yen ($841.5M) in the previous fiscal year.

“This was primarily due to the higher unit selling price of city gas under the fuel cost-adjustment system and an increase in sales from a rise in LNG prices and in the Domestic Energy Business and an increase in sales from the upstream project in the USA and Australia in the International Energy Business,” said Osaka Gas.

Negative impact

“In the Domestic Energy Business, although the negative impact of the time lag between fluctuations in raw material costs and their reflection in the unit selling prices diminished compared with the previous fiscal year, costs for LNG procurement increased,” the company explained.

Osaka Gas added that its number of consolidated subsidiaries was currently 154, with nine subsidiaries added and five removed since the fiscal year ended.

In its explanation of reduced profits from Freeport LNG, Osaka Gas noted that a fire broke out at the liquefaction plant of the Freeport LNG project, one of the Daigas Group’s investments and LNG sources.

“In response to the shutdown, we prepared to secure replacement LNG for the volumes the Group originally planned to procure from the project during the shutdown period and arranged modification regarding the contracts related to LNG procurement from the Freeport Project. The Project restarted operations at the plant in February of this year,” said Osaka Gas.

Global volumes

Osaka gas also has booked volumes from other global projects such as Oman LNG in the Arabian Peninsula, Gorgon LNG in Western Australia, the nearby Northwest Shelf Project and the Bintulu LNG plant in Malaysia.

Other Osaka Gas suppliers include Papua New Guinea LNG and the Sakhalin export plant in the Russian Far East.

In its future earnings forecast to March 2024, the utility said that consolidated ordinary profit was expected to increase by 83.3Bln yen ($607M) year-on-year to 159.0Bln yen ($1.78Bln) with Freeport back on stream.

“This is primarily due to an increase in profit in reaction to the absence of costs and losses associated with the Freeport fire in this fiscal year,” said Osaka Gas.

JGC Corp., the overseas engineering, procurement and construction business of Japan’s JGC Group, said it would head a consortium with South Korea’s Samsung Heavy Industries for construction of a nearshore floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) project in Malaysia planned by Petronas.

Mubadala Petroleum, the international energy company based in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates and with natural gas assets in the Eastern Mediterranean and LNG feed-gas resources in Malaysia, has reported a surge in annual production.

Thailand’s energy exploration and production company PTTEP, a shareholder in Mozambique LNG, has announced a second successive natural gas discovery at a field in Malaysian waters offshore Sarawak as the nation also aims to expand LNG imports because of growing power and industrial demand.

Jan 11 (LNGJ) - Petronas, the Malaysian energy company, has seen one of its subsidiaries, Petronas Carigali Sdn Bhd (PCSB), take over the operatorship of the E11 natural gas hub, located 130 kilometres offshore Bintulu in Sarawak, the Malaysian state on the island of Borneo. Petronas noted that the E11 hub, which has been producing since 1982 under the Malaysia LNG production sharing contract, had been operated by Royal Dutch Shell unit Sarawak Shell Bhd (SSB) for the past 38 years.

   The Petronas Vice President of Malaysian Assets, Bacho Pilong, said the change marked a significant landmark for PCSB as the operator of the E11 hub to ensure reliable, stable and cleaner energy supply to the market while continuing to develop Sarawak as a regional gas hub. “I am pleased to note that SSB and Petronas had implemented all the necessary activities to ensure a smooth handover of the E11 hub,” added Pilong.

The Malaysian state of Sarawak on the island of Borneo said it may be facing a second wave of Covid-19 pandemic cases after 10 were reported, including three from an LNG carrier that called at the Malaysian export plant at Bintulu after arriving from Japan.

The southeast Asian nation of Myanmar has entered the LNG business with the delivery of two LNG cargoes from Malaysian state energy company Petronas, destined for the port of Yangon for a Chinese-owned power joint venture.

Malaysia’s national energy company Petronas has signed a sales and purchase agreement for an LNG tank filling facility at Sarawak, the Malaysian state on the island of Borneo, for onward shipment to China in ISO containers.