LNG

Papua LNG, the joint venture expansion project in Papua New Guinea involving France’s TotalEnergies, US major ExxonMobil and Australia’s Santos, has launched a full front-end engineering and design (FEED) process to expand the existing PNG LNG plant’s production by up to 6 million tonnes per annum.

Portuguese oil and gas company Galp Energia swung to a second-quarter net profit of €726 million ($741M) from a previous quarterly loss as it reported progress in the development of the Mozambique floating LNG project in southeast Africa.

Japan, which was receiving an LNG cargo from Russia on May 9, said it would gradually phase out Russian oil imports as part of a Group of Seven sanctions response to the invasion of Ukraine, though would retain its stakes in certain joint ventures, including the Sakhalin LNG and oil projects in the Russian Far East.

US major ExxonMobil with LNG production stakes in nations like Qatar, Australia, Papua New Guinea and at Golden Pass in Texas has become the latest energy company to quit Russia over the Ukrainian invasion and is expected to take a hit on earnings of up to $4 billion by leaving behind mainly oil interests in the Russian Far East.

The Saudi Arabian Oil Co., the biggest crude oil company partly responsible for swamping the globe with supplies amid a demand plunge, has taken the opportunity to boost its downstream business with an internal deal valued at $69 billion amid gas and LNG plans.

Saudi Aramco’s competition with Russia on output in March 2020 sparked the worldwide drop in oil prices and along with the Covid-19 pandemic caused the energy sector to suffer from earnings erosion across all sectors, including LNG.

Saudi Aramco itself last month posted a 25 percent drop in first-quarter net income to $16.7 billion from $22.21Bln in the prior-year quarter.

The company has now positioned itself to be one of the major global petrochemicals players.

Saudi Aramco has just announced the successful completion of its share acquisition of a 70 percent stake in Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC) from the Public Investment Fund (PIF), the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia.

Four huge transactions were executed on the Saudi stock exchange, known as the Tadawul, involving SABIC shares. The total purchase price was 259.125 billion riyals (US$ 69.1Bln).

“The completion of the transaction enhances Aramco’s presence in the global petrochemicals industry, a sector expected to record the fastest growth in oil demand in the years ahead,” said the oil company.

“The acquisition of the SABIC stake is consistent with Aramco’s long-term Downstream strategy to grow its integrated refining and petrochemicals capacity and create value from integration across the hydrocarbon chain,” it stated.

Saudi Aramco had previously said it was aiming to enter the natural gas and LNG markets in the next couple of years and one of its subsidiaries has an accord to invest in Sempra Energy's Port Arthur LNG export project in Texas and to buy offtake.

Port Arthur like other ventures in the US and elsewhere will now likley be delayed. The Saudis also plan to cooperate with the United Arab Emirates on opportunities in the natural gas and LNG value chain.

Saudi Aramco and the Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. have a framework agreement to collaboration on gas and LNG in a deal that brings together the leading energy producers from the Arabian Gulf.

Amin Nasser, President and Chief Executive of Saudi Aramco, said he was excited about taking control of petrochemicals giant SABIC.

“It is a significant leap forward which accelerates Aramco’s Downstream strategy and transforms our company into one of the major global petrochemicals players,” said Nasser.

“The strategic integration of our Upstream production and Downstream chemicals feedstock production with SABIC’s chemicals platform is expected to create opportunities for selective integration synergies that support growth and add value for shareholders,” he added.

Jan 8 (LNGJ) - ExxonMobil, one of the leading global LNG producers through its partnership with Qatar, has had positive results from its Ranger-1 exploration well, marking ExxonMobil’s sixth discovery since 2015 offshore Guyana on the North Atlantic coast of South America. The US major said the Ranger-1 well discovery adds to previous world-class discoveries at Liza, Payara, Snoek, Liza Deep and Turbot, which are estimated to total more than 3.2 billion recoverable oil-equivalent barrels. The well was safely drilled to 21,161 feet (6,450 metres) depth in 8,973 feet (2,735 metres) of water. “This latest success operating in Guyana’s significant water depths illustrates our ultra-deepwater and carbonate exploration capabilities,” said Steve Greenlee, President of ExxonMobil Exploration Company.