LNG

Italian gas grid and LNG terminals operator Societa Nazionale Metanodotti (SNAM), is making progress in acquiring more natural storage in Italy to underpin the build-out of floating LNG import terminals.

Equinor, the Norwegian energy major, LNG plant owner and pipeline natural gas supplier to Europe, is increasing gas output on the Norwegian Continental Shelf with a gas field joint venture.

July 8 (LNGJ) - Equinor, the Norwegian oil, gas and LNG producer and the main supplier of pipeline gas to Europe, said ahead of second-quarter earnings on July 24 that the company’s internal natural gas price for the three months rose to $8.47 per million British thermal units, up from $7.76 per MMBtu in the first quarter of 2024.

   Equinor’s internal transfer price for natural gas is a volume weighted average price calculated at the end of every quarter after deducting costs relating to bringing the gas from the processing plants to market and a marketing fee element. The price components include values of the Dutch Title Transfer Facility (TTF) amounting to 22.5 percent of the total, the UK National Balancing Point (NBP) with 30 percent input, Germany’s Trading Hub Europe (THE) price at 22.5 percent and the French Point d’Echange de Gaz (PEG) 25 percent.

The UK-based Prax Group, a company whose business covers exploration and production to refining, has signed an agreement to acquire the interests of TotalEnergies in the UK North Sea Greater Laggan Area comprising mainly gas fieds and the Shetland Gas Plant.

Prax said it was buying the onshore Shetland Gas Plant as well as the French major’s interests in several nearby exploration licences.  The transaction whose value was not disclosed is subject to approval from the relevant authorities.

The Greater Laggan Area fields include the Laggan, Tormore, Glenlivet, Edradour and Glendronach fields and are located about 140 kilometres (87 miles) west of the Shetland Islands.

Current production for the TotalEnergies interests is around 7,500 barrels of oil equivalent per day, made up of about 90 percent natural gas.

Sullom Voe location

The Shetland Gas Plant is located at Sullom Voe and is the collection and gas processing facility for the offshore Laggan-Tormore projects, comprising two large gas and gas condensate fields.

The Laggan and Tormore gas fields are in sea depths of 600 metres (2,000 ft).

The Shetland Gas Plant is also connected to the Shetland Islands Regional Gas Export (SIRGE) pipeline, which is 234km in length with capacity of 665 million standard cubic feet per day.

The SIRGE pipeline provides transportation services for the export of gas from the West of Shetland fields to the UK mainland market.

Prax had previously acquired Hurricane Energy in 2023. This is a UK-based oil and gas exploration and production company with a 100 percent operated interest in the Lancaster offshore oil field in the West of Shetland basin.

“With a strong track record of integrating acquisitions and managing assets in the oil and gas value chain, the Prax Group is a long-standing and trusted partner of TotalEnergies,” explained Sanjeev Kumar Soosaipillai, Chairman and Chief Executive of the Prax Group.

“The announcement of the signing of this agreement is the culmination of many months of solid co-operation between our respective companies,” he added.

UK value chain

“Our strong balance sheet has enabled the Group to execute its growth strategy having successfully completed two major acquisitions last year, and with two other transactions in the pipeline, I am delighted that the Prax Group is able to announce its proposed expansion in West of Shetland, as part of our long-term plan to strengthen our position across the whole oil and gas value chain,” stated the Prax CEO.

Discussing the reasoning behind the sale by TotalEnergies, the company’s Jean-Luc Guiziou, Senior Vice President in Europe for Exploration and Production, said that the transaction was in line with the company’s strategy to continuously adapt its portfolio by divesting mature non-core assets.

“TotalEnergies remains committed to the UK through both its upstream portfolio in the North Sea (Elgin-Franklin, Culzean and Alwyn fields) and its Integrated Power and Renewables portfolio,” Guiziou stated.

The Prax Group is headquartered in the UK and describes itself as a British multinational and independent E&P company and with a distribution and sales unit dealing in petroleum products and bio-fuels.

The Prax Group also has US and Asian offices in Houston, Texas, and in Singapore. 

NewMed Energy, the Israeli company with stakes in the East Mediterranean gas fields, has received approval in principle to export more volumes from the prolific Leviathan field offshore Israel.

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.

Denmark, the European Union nation with LNG, pipeline gas and renewables power trading players in Copenhagen, said it had officially exited the gas crisis caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine by persuading citizens to use less gas.

Morocco is moving ahead with plans for a floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) and several more FSRUs in the future as part of an expansion in natural gas imports amid hopes of more production of gas from discoveries onshore and offshore the North African kingdom.

SNAM, the Italian gas grid operator and liquefied natural gas import terminals owner, is progressing with the replacement and financing of natural gas pipelines to strengthen South-North infrastructure.

NewMed Energy, the Israeli company with stakes in the East Mediterranean gas fields like Leviathan offshore Israel and the Aphrodite field offshore Cyprus and with LNG export ambitions, reported solid earnings and steady exports to regional markets amid advances in several projects.