LNG

Tamboran Resources, an exploration and production company currently valued at A$391.5 million (US$258M) on the Australian Securities Exchange, is launching an initial public offering of shares in the US for shale-gas assets in Australia’s equivalent of the Marcellus Shale in the Northeast US.

March 27 (LNGJ) - Inpex Corp. , the Japanese oil and gas major and operator of the Ichthys LNG export plant at Bladin Point near Darwin in Australia’s Northern Territory and developer of the Abadi LNG project in Indonesia, said that annual revenues declined by 6.5 percent to 2.164 trillion yen ($14.3Bln) from 2.316 trillion yen in 2022. Net profits dropped 35.5 percent to 321.7Bln yen ($2.12Bln) from 498.4Bln yen in the previous year as LNG and petroleum prices declined.

   The Tokyo-based company said that adjusted profits from the Ichthys LNG plant in 2023 amounted to 364.6 billion yen ($2.4Bln), which was an 8.8 percent return on invested capital (ROIC) on the joint venture. Inpex’s average realised natural gas price dropped by 18.2 percent to $5.62 per million British thermal units from $6.87 per MMBtu in 2022. “Inpex increased exploration activities surrounding the Ichthys gas field and for the Bonaparte carbon-capture and storage offshore Australia,” it added in a presentation. Inpex’s net sales revenues from crude oil decreased by 9.3 percent to 1,608 trillion yen ($10.62Bln) in 2023.

Inpex Corp., the Japanese operator of the Ichthys LNG plant in Australia and developer of the Abadi LNG project in Indonesia, has signed a natural gas and decarbonisation deal with Ashikaga City north of Tokyo known for its historic trees, flower beds and pristine water to supply gas from the next phase of cleaner LNG projects.

TotalEnergies has signed a liquefied natural gas sale and purchase agreement to supply Sembcorp Fuels, a wholly owned subsidiary of Singapore-based Sembcorp Industries.

The deal entails the delivery of up to 800,000 tonnes of LNG for a duration of 16 years, commencing in 2027.

“The LNG will be sourced from TotalEnergies’ global portfolio. This new agreement adds to the companies’ current SPA, which runs until 2029,” the French major explained.

“By supplying this additional LNG supply to Singapore, TotalEnergies is contributing to the country’s energy security and to its decarbonization goals,” said TotalEnergies.

“This deal also reflects TotalEnergies’ commitment to supporting its customers in their transition to greater sustainability,” it added.

TotalEnergies is the world’s third-largest LNG player with a market share of around 12 percent and a global portfolio of about 50 MTPA with interests in export facilities from Africa to Australia.

Qatar deals

QatarEnergy is also a key supplier to TotalEnergies and in 2023 two long-term LNG SPAs were signed to supply of up to 3.5 MTPA of LNG from Qatar to France.

Under the Qatar agreements, LNG will be delivered ex-ship to the Fos Cavaou LNG receiving terminal located west of Marseilles.

Those deliveries are expected to start in 2026 for a term of 27 years.

TotalEnergies has gas interests in two of Qatar’s expansion joint ventures, the North Field East (NFE) and the North Field South (NFS) projects.

TotalEnergies recently reported declines in annual and quarterly net profits as commodity prices plummeted compared with the previous year while the French major sold over 44 million tonnes of LNG and opened the Le Havre floating LNG regasification terminal in France while being further boosted by progress in other oil and gas projects.

TotalEnergies posted a 35 percent drop in adjusted net operating income for all of 2023 to $25.10 billion from $38.47Bln in 2022.

For full-year 2023, hydrocarbon production for LNG was up 9 percent compared with 2022 due to increased supply to Nigeria LNG in West Africa, higher availability of Ichthys LNG in the Northern Territory of Australia and from the Hammerfest LNG plant in Norway.

Inpex Corp., the Japanese liquefied natural gas producer and project developer, has joined with LNG importers Tokyo Gas and Osaka Gas to conduct a joint study on e-methane production with the largest clean energy company in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates.

Inpex Corp., the operator of the Ichthys LNG plant in Australia and developer of the Abadi LNG project in Indonesia, said it received written approval on December 6 for the revised Plan of Development (POD) for the Indonesian Abadi joint venture and would be moving on to the front-end engineering and design phase.

UK-based major Shell is completing a fourth-month maintenance turnaround of the “Prelude FLNG” production vessel that operates off the northwest coast of Australia and which has suffered shutdown over the last few years because of technical issues as well as industrial unrest among workers.

The FLNG vessel is moored 400 kilometres (250 miles) north of the town of Broome on Western Australia’s Kimberley coast and has 3.6 million tonnes per annum of production capacity.

Shell has attempted to tackle some long-term technical issues at the facility with maintenance and work that started in August 2023.

Demand window

“Prelude FLNG” will be coming back on stream to capture the winter demand surge in Japan, China, South Korea and Taiwan.

The LNG carrier “Symphonic Breeze” is expected at the “Prelude FLNG” production hull early in December.

Shipping data showed that the “Symphonic Breeze” departed from the Japanese port of Naoetsu on November 23 with the destination of the vessel with 145,500 cubic metres capacity given as the Shell export facility.

Prelude FLNG has suffered several outages since it started production in June 2019, including a fire that led to a full power loss in December 2021 and several other automatic shut-downs because of fire alarms going off.

“Prelude is a complex facility in a remote offshore location,” said Shell in a statement.

“This is its first major turnaround and we continue to work through the process methodically taking as much time as required to ensure safe execution of all activities,” said the London-headquartered company.

“During the turnaround, additional scopes of work were identified and a decision made to extend maintenance to complete these scopes ahead of restart,” Shell added.

Feed gas

For the Shell project, the Concerto gas field and the nearby Prelude field provide the feed gas for the LNG and the new Crux field is also being developed.

The “Prelude” joint venture is owned 67.5 percent by Shell and 17.5 percent by Inpex Corp. of Japan, operator of the Australian Ichthys project from where the carrier the “Symphonic Breeze” has lifted many cargoes for Japan.

The Inpex Ichthys plant is located at Bayden Point in the Northern Territory of Australia, close to the Darwin LNG plant operated by Santos.

The Santos facility is seeking to bring on stream more feed gas from the Barossa gas project.

A further 10 percent of “Prelude” is held by the South Korean LNG buyer Korea Gas Corp. and 5 percent by CPC Corp. of Taiwan.

The Australian regulatory and competition watchdog has waved through the A$18.7 billion (US$11.9Bln) buyout of Origin Energy by a North American consortium and with a resultant side-deal also giving Saudi Aramco access for the first time to the liquefied natural gas sector.

TotalEnergies, the French major with multiple energy and LNG projects under development, has pledged at a two-day meeting of the board to maintain a multi-energy strategy with current Chairman and Chief Executive Patrick Pouyanné at the helm.

The company said the board met on September 20-21 in Paris to review the strategic outlook in the context of “changing energy markets because of the energy transition and evolving geopolitical” events.

TotalEnergies has oil and gas interests from Argentina to Asia and is a leading global LNG market participants. Its immediate LNG plans include developing the huge onshore Mozambique LNG export project,  expanding LNG production in Papua New Guinea and taking part in the liquefaction build-out in Qatar.

Relevance

The board noted the relevance of the company’s balanced multi-energy strategy considering the developments in the oil, gas and electricity markets. 

“Thanks to refocusing the oil and gas portfolio on assets and projects with low breakeven and low greenhouse gas emissions, and to the diversification into electricity, notably renewable, through an integrated strategy from production to customer, the company is in a very favorable position to take advantage of changing energy markets and prices” the board said in a statement.

With a breakeven anchored below $25 a barrel of oil, TotalEnergies said it was a much more “efficient and profitable company today than it was 10 years ago” at the same oil equivalent price.

The board noted that the company managed to generate an additional $15 billion of cash flow in 2022. 

“Thus, by end-2022, the company benefits from a fortress balance sheet and is positioned to both implement its transition strategy and to guarantee an attractive shareholder return policy,” the board added.

Continuity

The board said that while it was reaffirming its support for the “quality and the relevance” of the strategy, which will be presented to investors on September 27, the Board considers as appropriate to ensure the continuity of the company’s governance and leadership.

“The board, thus, considers that it is highly desirable that Patrick Pouyanné, Chairman and CEO, continues to drive this strategy’s deployment at the helm of the company,” the company declared.

“On the proposal of the Governance and Ethics Committee, it has therefore unanimously decided that the renewal of the mandate of Patrick Pouyanné will be proposed to the General Meeting in May 2024,” it said.

Jacques Aschenbroich, the lead independent director at the French major, underlined and also expressed his confidence in the current leadership.

“Since 2014, Patrick has done an extraordinary job leading TotalEnergies in a complex environment, delivering outstanding financial results and engaging the company in the energy transition quicker and stronger than its peers,” said Aschenbroich. 

“The board unanimously looks forward to his continued leadership and his strategic vision,” stated Aschenbroich.

Inpex Corp., the leading Japanese liquefied natural gas developer and operator in the Asia-Pacific region, is focusing on re-assuring shareholders and the public in Japan on the company’s safety and security by organising facility tours of the Naoetsu LNG Terminal in Joetsu City in Niigata Prefecture.