LNG

Williams Companies, a leading US natural gas pipelines operator, has outlined plans for supplying more feed-gas for liquefied natural gas export plants on the Gulf Coast and to meet the nation’s growing needs for gas-fired power.

The liquefied natural gas export project proposed for the Timor Sea resources of the Greater Sunrise gas fields offshore northern Australia and the tiny nation of Timor-Leste is to be the subject of a concept selection programme after almost 20 years of delays.

The Greater Sunrise joint venture is majority controlled (56.56 percent) by the Timor-Leste national oil company, while Australian LNG producer Woodside Energy owns more than 33 percent and the balance of 10 percent is held by Japanese utility Osaka Gas.

Talks between Woodside, the Australian government and Timor-Este on the future of a Greater Sunrise LNG project have continued intermittently for years and have now reached a settlement point.

“The Sunrise joint venture will consider all of the key issues for delivering the gas, for processing and LNG sales, to Timor-Leste compared to delivering the gas to Australia,” explained the statement.

The Greater Sunrise gas fields are located about 150 kilometres (93 miles) off Timor-Leste and 450km northwest of Darwin in Australia’s Northern Territory.

“In parallel to the concept select program, the joint venture is progressing the negotiation of the new Production Sharing Contract, Petroleum Mining Code and associated agreements with the Timor-Leste and Australian Governments, which upon finalisation will provide the fiscal and regulatory certainty required for a development to proceed,” the joint statement concluded.

Resources available

The resources of the Sunrise and Troubadour gas fields that would be developed contain contingent resource (2C) of 5.3 trillion cubic feet of dry gas and 226 million barrels of condensate.

Woodside Energy Chief Executive Meg O’Neill said the development of new technologies and growing demand for safe and reliable LNG meant it was “the right time to bring forward the concept selection” programme.

“It is important we continue to look at ways to develop the Greater Sunrise fields using the latest technologies by evaluating, for example, modular LNG, that did not exist in the past,” explained O’Neill.

“Against a backdrop of global geopolitical instability and constrained energy supply chains, there is an opportunity for the Sunrise Joint Venture to significantly advance this regionally important project,” she stated.

Long awaited

Antonio de Sousa,, the President and Chief Executive of Timor-Leste’s state energy company, Timor GAP, said he was pleased that all the efforts had contributed towards realising the “long-awaited goal” of developing Greater Sunrise.

“This path forward is a significant commitment to our stakeholders, to the aspirations of those who made sacrifices to achieve independence for the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, and to the future of our people and Timor-Leste,” stated De Sousa.

“It offers a clearer path to prosperity, equality, peace, stability and sustainability for current and future generations,” he added.

The Managing Director of Osaka Gas Australia, Yo Otsuka, said it was important to assess and compare the development concepts “from both technical and commercial points of view to select the best option” for the success of the Sunrise project.

Baker Hughes, the liquefied natural gas equipment-maker and energy services company, has told investors it was well positioned to capitalize on multi-year growth in LNG and new energy projects.

The company, which has main offices in Houston and London and is led by Chairman and Chief Executive Lorenzo Simonelli said it had an “exciting portfolio” of emerging energy transition technologies and solutions.

In its most recent earnings, Baker Hughes recorded strong orders from its Turbomachinery and Process Solutions (TPS) division and said the LNG order cycle continued to unfold.

The company believes that the industry has entered another constructive LNG cycle, which is being expedited by the current geopolitical situation, particularly for US LNG projects and it forecast that global liquefaction capacity could be expected to almost double by 2040.

“We have compelling growth profile driven by range of energy transition initiatives,” said Baker Hughes in a presentation to investors.

“Multiple areas could drive extended growth cycles over the next 5-10 years and beyond,” stated Baker Hughes.

Contracts

Baker Hughes was most recently awarded the contract for the LNG driver system for the first phase of US company Venture Global’s Plaquemines LNG project, located south of New Orleans on the Mississippi River in Louisiana.

The company said it now had orders booked for 150 million tonnes per annum of LNG capacity.

Baker Hughes has four divisions and in addition to LNG equipment through the Turbomachinery and Process unit it also offers oil field services, oil field equipment and digital energy solutions.

New LNG wave

“Gas fundamentals, particularly in Europe and Asia have tightened significantly. The current backdrop supports a new wave of LNG projects being sanctioned to fill the liquefaction capacity supply-demand gap,” it said,.

“there has also been a significant increase in long-term contracting activity and this has helped projects secure funding and progress to final investment decisions,” it noted.

In oil services, the company stated that sustained underinvestment had started to impact supply in the oil market.

“Capital discipline and the escalating focus on shareholder returns has restrained spending and ESG pressures have driven the strategies of major international oil companies away from fossil fuels,” said Baker Hughes.

It cited in particular the members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.

“OPEC countries, struggling to meet quotas, have seen spare capacity shrinking and global oil inventories trending significantly below average,” said Baker Hughes.

The company stated that the demand recovery in oil and LNG is set to exceed pre-Covid-19 levels despite increasing pressure to reduce hydrocarbon consumption.

Baker Hughes said the spending surge was fuelled by strong economic recovery in developed economies and long-term structural growth in emerging economies.

Cheniere Energy said it had initiated a planned lump sum, turnkey, engineering, procurement and construction contract with US LNG and energy engineering firm Bechtel Inc. for the Corpus Christi LNG plant expansion.

Santos Ltd., the operator of the Gladstone LNG plant in Queensland and Darwin LNG in the Northern Territory, said that its Barossa LNG feed-gas project offshore northwest Australia remained on-track for a final investment decision in the first half of 2021 and with key Japanese customer interest.

Woodside Petroleum, the Australian LNG plant operator and international commodities company BHP, are advancing with their Scarborough gas field project to underpin the Burrup Gas Hub planned for Western Australia.

ExxonMobil Chairman and Chief Executive Darren W. Woods said the US major was still committed to its Mozambique liquefied natural gas project as well as to other ventures amid further delays, while cutting back immediately in US Permian Basin production.

The International Gas Union Gas said a “huge wave” of liquefied natural gas export project liquefaction capacity is currently still in the pre-Final Investment Decision stage and standing by for development.

TechnipFMC, Franco-US energy and LNG engineering company, said its split into two separate listed companies was on track for the first half of 2020 as it posted a 6 percent increase in third-quarter revenues to $3.33 billion as new large-scale LNG contracts were awarded.

Australian energy company Santos has signed up for a stake in the P’nyang natural gas field in Papua New Guinea that will underpin its full participation in the PNG LNG expansion projects and allow the venture to move forward.