LNG

ADNOC has taken a $6.2 billion final investment decision on the Umm Shaif Gas Cap project in Abu Dhabi with partners TotalEnergies, Eni and CNPC. The project will unlock more than 600 million standard cubic feet per day of gas and associated liquids by 2030, or nearly 10% of current UAE gas consumption. It also builds on ADNOC’s launch of a global LNG marketing and trading platform in Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM), which is targeting 47mtpa of combined marketable LNG capacity by 2035.

Persistent disruptions to LNG flows through the Strait of Hormuz bolster Russia’s chances of getting the Power of Siberia II pipeline built. A 2032 startup would give Gazprom a new major outlet, as the EU’s 2027 ban on Russian LNG reshapes Moscow’s long-term export strategy.

Technip Energies, together with Japan Gasoline Co. (JGC) and Samsung Heavy Industries, has secured an engineering, procurement, construction and commissioning (EPCC) contract for the Coral Norte floating LNG project off Mozambique. The contract was awarded by Mozambique Rovuma Venture, a joint venture comprising Eni, ExxonMobil and China’ CNPC.

China is preparing to list Yuan-denominated LNG futures on the Shanghai Futures Exchange as early as February in a bid to bolster pricing power of its state-owned LNG importers CNOOC, CNPC, Sinopec and PetroChina.

Gazprom’s latest cooperation push with CNPC is accelerating the ramp-up of Russian pipeline gas exports to China, capping the country’s LNG demand. Gazprom aims to increase exports via additional pipeline routes such as the Power of Siberia 2 pipeline.

Bearishness sentiment pervades in the Chinese LNG market as the nation’s gas demand continues to fall. “Unless imports are massively picking up in November and December, we might stay below 2023-levels,” warned Anne-Sophie Corbeau, global research Scholar at the Center on Global Energy Policy.

Little room would be left for US LNG imports to China if the country were to take the full 50 Bcm/y capacity of the Power of Siberia 2 gas pipeline, analysts suggest. If CNPC was to absorb the full throughput of the proposed gas interconnector, Gazprom could dent 42-45% of Chinese gas imports by 2040.

China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC), the largest player in the Chinese natural gas industry, said it was advancing with three key projects comprising LNG shipping, a huge pipeline project and more associated gas production.

French energy major TotalEnergies said it was assessing the possible impact of US sanctions on the Arctic LNG II project on the Gydan Peninsula of northern Russia in which it has a direct 10 percent stake and a total interest of 21.5 percent via its shareholding in Russian natural gas company and LNG developer Novatek.

TotalEnergies was a leading player in two Arctic LNG joint ventures and a shareholder in the Novatek company itself as well in the existing Novatek-operated Yamal LNG plant, though announced last year it was looking for ways to pull out after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

In contrast with other global energy majors like Shell and ExxonMobil Corp. that have cut ties with Russia after its invasion of Ukraine, the French company has held on to several investments, including minority stakes in Yamal LNG and Arctic LNG II.

Before the latest sanctions imposed on November 2 by the US on Russia over the Ukraine invasion, TotalEnergies had said it would honour its gas contracts in Russia as long as there were no sanctions involved.

Consequences

“The consequences of the designation of Arctic LNG 2 as a SDN (special designated nationals) entity by the US authorities on TotalEnergies' contractual commitments to Arctic LNG II are currently being assessed,” said TotalEnergies

The company had previously said in March 2022 it had decided to no longer book proved gas reserves for the Arctic LNG II project nor contribute any more investment capital to the project, which is scheduled to come onstream in the first quarter of 2024.

TotalEnergies booked an impairment of $4.1 billion in its first-quarter earnings of 2022 for Arctic LNG II out of a total of $14.8Bln in Russia-related asset write-downs for all of 2022.

Novatek Chairman Leonid Mikhelson has pledged to bring the Gydan Peninsula liquefaction and export plant on stream in early 2024.

Two liquefaction Trains have already been installed on gravity-based platforms at an LNG assembly yard in the town of Belokamenka in the Murmansk region and have been towed to the site.

Each liquefaction Train installed on the platforms will have production capacity of 6.6 million tonnes per annum to total almost 20 MTPA in nameplate capacity.

During the first half of 2023 a total of over 80 gas wells were completed at the Utrenneye gas field to provide feed gas for Arctic LNG II.

All three liquefaction Trains at the Arctic LNG II plant were originally scheduled to come on stream in a two-year time span from 2023, though issues with the supply of technology have delayed the start-up.

Basic LNG modules were constructed in China for the liquefaction Trains and the first was delivered back in September 2021 to the Murmansk assembly site.

China modules

The modules were built at the Wison shipyard at Zhoushan in the eastern Chinese province of Zhejiang.

The first Chinese module was delivered to the Murmansk yard in September 2021, five months before the Ukraine invasion.

Novatek controls 60 percent of the Arctic LNG II project and its other remaining active partners out with TotalEnergies are from China and Japan.

They are China National Petroleum Corp., China National Offshore Oil Corp. and a consortium comprising Japanese companies, including Japan's Mitsui & Co. and the Japan Organization for Metals and Energy Security, previously known as JOGMEC.

All the shareholders in the project will have offtake. The biggest shareholder Novatek signed sales and purchase agreements in 2022 with two Chinese energy companies, ENN Group and Zhejiang Energy Gas Group.

The Russian company's subsidiary, Novatek Gas and Power Asia, signed a deal with ENN’s trading firm ENN LNG (Singapore) Ltd.

LNG deliveries to ENN will be on a delivered ex-ship (DES) basis whereby Novatek supplies the shipping to ENN’s Zhoushan LNG receiving terminal in eastern China.

Oct 20 (LNGJ) – Russia’s Gazprom and China National Petroleum Corp. said they signed an additional agreement for China to receive more pipeline natural gas from Siberia from the end of 2023. Gazprom Chief Executive Alexey Miller and CNPC Chairman Dai Houliang signed the deal after a meeting in Beijing. 

   “During the meeting Gazprom and CNPC signed an additional agreement to the gas sales contract on the eastern route for an extra volume of supplies of Russian gas to China by the end of 2023,” said a statement that gave no details of volumes. Gazprom also said it had made more progress in the design works on the Soyuz Vostok gas pipeline that will cross Mongolian territory into China and that would become the continuation of the “Power of Siberia II” gas pipeline.