LNG

South Korean discussions are under way to create the nation’s largest energy company by merging two parts of the SK Group with LNG, oil and gas and chemicals assets into a mega-Korean corporation worth over US$75 billion if completed.

Production companies seeking efficient and cost-effective methods of increasing their output are forecast to increase spending by almost 20 percent in 2023 to total $58 billion for additional oil and natural gas resources to satisfy global demand for energy such as LNG and pipeline gas and for necessary activities like petroleum refining and chemicals production to make products such as pharmaceuticals.

Italian energy company Eni has explained the strategy behind its agreed acquisition for $4.9 billion of UK-based Neptune Energy, which is controlled by equity funds and owns key global LNG stakes and gas field assets in Algeria, Indonesia, Norway, the UK, the Netherlands and Australia.

Inpex Corp. of Japan, operator of the Ichthys plant in Northern Australia and a shareholder in the offshore Prelude FLNG plant with Royal Dutch Shell, reported losses for 2020 and took hits on Prelude and Eagle Ford assets in the US, while forecasting a recovery in the Japanese and global oil and gas markets for the rest of 2021.

Indonesian energy executives held a recent online conference with the national oil and gas regulator on ways of increasing domestic natural gas demand such as constructing more pipeline infrastructure to support the home market as a less expensive alternative to increasing LNG exports.