Intercontinental Exchange aligns Midland WTI crude specifications to match US physical Gulf Coast cargoes
Intercontinental Exchange, the leading global provider of trading platforms for the whole energy complex from crude oil to LNG cargoes and European and Asian natural gas futures and options, has refined its contract for key US Gulf Coast oil futures.
Qatari LNG chief reminds West and the coal-burning EU about importance of LNG in energy transition
QatarEnergy Chief Executive Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi said the soaring cost of energy was “weighing painfully” on the world economy and eroding support among the general public for the transition to “green energy” while boosting coal-burning in the world’s leading economies.
South Korea to shut oldest coal-fired power plant on December 31 and replace it with facility using LNG
South Korea said the nation’s oldest coal-powered electricity generating plant would be shut down for good on December 31 in line with the government's plan to shift towards cleaner energy.
The Korean Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy confirmed that the Honam Coal Power Plant located in Yeosu in South Jeolla province, 450 kilometres south of the capital Seoul, was scheduled to stop operations at the end of December.
“The plant has been in operation as a power producer since 1973,” added the Ministry.
The nation's nine other coal-based plants have all been retired since 2017 as their operational life cycles have expired.
“A new gas-fired generating facility using regasified LNG will be built at the Yeosu site,” said the Ministry.
The Hanyang Corporation has been grated permits to convert the city of Yeosu into a hub for LNG.
The approved project will include construction of LNG storage tanks, a jetty and other regasification infrastructure as well as truck-loading bays by 2024.
South Korea is the world’s third-largest LNG importer with access to global supplies.
The country's annual demand for LNG is expected to reach about 48 million tonnes in 2034 compared with 41.7MT estimated for 2021.
South Korea's imports of LNG in 2020 amounted to 40.81MT versus fourth-placed India’s 26.62MT.
The nation’s six large operational import terminals are at Boryyeong, Incheon, Kwangyang, Pyeong-Taek, Samcheok and Tong-Yeong.
The biggest supplier to South Korea is Qatar with just short of 10MT of cargoes and followed by Australia with 8.10MT.
Global liftings of LNG rebound by over 10 percent as European values rise along with spot cargo prices
Global liftings of liquefied natural gas cargoes rebounded by more than 10 percent this week while European benchmark LNG values rose along with the Japan-Korea Marker price for spot shipments heading for North Asia.
Japex takes US$400M hit to exit Canadian shale-gas project previously part of Petronas LNG venture
Japan Petroleum Exploration Co., the oil and gas operator with liquefied natural gas import terminal and Japanese pipelines assets, has agreed to cut losses and sell its stake to Malaysia’s Petronas in the Canadian North Montney shale-gas joint venture.
Japanese LNG imports in 2020 decline by 3.7 percent but surpass China's in December cargo scramble
Japan’s liquefied natural gas imports again declined on an annual basis by 3.7 percent in 2020 with only Australian, spot and US volumes increasing, though shipments to Japanese terminals still outstripped China’s during the month of December.
