LNG

TotalEnergies 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 liquefied natural gas and opened the Le Havre floating LNG regasification terminal in France while being further boosted by progress in other oil and gas projects.

TotalEnergies, the developer of the onshore Mozambique liquefied natural gas project in southeast Africa, said it rejected a complaint filed against it in a Paris court alleging manslaughter and a failure to assist people in danger during the terrorist attacks that took place in northern Mozambique in March and April 2021.

ExxonMobil Corp., the largest US oil company and leading LNG producer and a partner of Qatar, continues in talks to acquire Texas-based Pioneer Natural Resources in what would be its largest acquisition since the historic tie-up between Exxon and Mobil in 1999. 

Air Products, the world leading LNG-equipment maker and industrial gases and chemicals company, has successfully issued its registered green bonds amounting to a total of over $1.34 billion in dollars and euros.

TotalEnergies held a two-day Board meeting to approve future strategy that will involve a larger liquefied natural gas portfolio to position the French major in the top three worldwide of LNG market participants.

Sasol, the South African petrochemicals, energy and fuels company, has agreed to sell a 30 percent in the natural gas pipeline running from future LNG exporter Mozambique into South Africa.

Sasol will retain a 20 percent holding and continue to operate and maintain the 865-kilometres Republic of Mozambique Pipeline Company (ROMCO) link currently transporting natural gas from the Pande and Temane fields in Mozambique to Sasol's operations in South Africa.

Both the Pande and Temane gas fields are onshore and are located around 600 kilometres north of the Mozambican capital Maputo and have been in production since 2004 and 2010 respectively.

However, Mozambique has other more lucrative natural gas fields in the Rovuma Basin offshore the northeast province of Cabo Delgado, though the main onshore LNG export project being developed there by France’s Total has been suspended for now because of insecurity in the region.

Sasol, the world’s leading producer of motor fuel made from coal, is attempting to cash in assets to pay off some of its huge debts.

Sasol said the sale would net around 5.14 billion South African rand ($363M) when completed by the end of the first half of 2021.

The purchasers are South African interests, including a subsidiary of the nation’s largest pension fund firm and insurer, Old Mutual.

“Sasol will retain a 20 percent shareholding in ROMPCO and will continue to operate and maintain the pipeline in terms of the commercial agreement between Sasol and ROMPCO, which is independent of the proposed transaction,” explained the South African energy company.

“Sasol´s agreements with ROMPCO to transport gas to the Secunda plant are unaffected by the proposed transaction and the tariffs remain as per the said agreements, which were approved by the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (NERSA),” it added.

Secunda CTL is a synthetic fuel plant and petrochemicals and power complex owned by Sasol at Secunda in Mpumalanga province, about 130 kilometres (80 miles) southeast of Johannesburg.

The plant uses coal liquefaction to produce petroleum-like synthetic crude oil from coal.

The Sasol name itself comes from the acronym for South African Synthetic Oil.

The CTL project had its roots in the Apartheid era in South Africa as one way of firstly partly circumventing the global oil supply crisis of the 1970s and then international sanctions.

The first synthetic oil plant in South Africa was opened about 50 years ago at Sasolburg, an industrial site in the north of Free State province chosen for its adjacent coalfields and abundant water supplies from the Vaal River.

Angola, the southwest African LNG producer, has found a willing exploration and production partner in Italian energy company Eni, which has plans to invest around $7 billion in Angola over the next four years along with other partner companies.

European energy major Total has formally resumed a full work schedule on the Mozambique LNG export project after the government in the southeast African nation improved security arrangements in Cabo Delgado province.

ABB, the Swiss-Swedish power and systems company, said it was awarded a key contract for the Mozambique LNG export project in southeast Africa being developed by French energy major Total.

PetroChina, the Hong Kong-listed arm of China National Petroleum Corp. and with LNG project stakes in Mozambique and Canada, has swung to a first-quarter loss because of the effects of the coronavirus and as its own oil and natural gas output increased in a low-demand period.

The state-controlled Chinese major reported a net loss for the first three months of 2020 of 16.23 billion yuan ($2.29 billion) versus a profit of 10.24Bln yuan ($1.44Bln) in the prior-year quarter.

PetroChina’s revenues fell by 14.4 percent to 509 billion Chinese yuan ($79.9Bln), according to its earnings statement filed with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

Crude oil production rose 4.2 percent to 232.7 million barrels and natural gas output increased 8.7 percent to 1,086.9 billion cubic feet.

“The increase in output was driven by new oil and gas capacity built in 2019,” said PetroChina.

“Facing a severe and complicated economy and operational situation both abroad and domestically, the group faithfully acted out the new concept of development, pushed ahead with quality-based development, paid more attention to green and low-carbon development and digital transformation as well as the value creation,” it added.

PetroChina’s managing company CNPC imports pipeline natural gas from Central Asian countries and Russia as well as LNG from projects such as the Yamal plant in Siberia and from PetroChina LNG agreements.

The Chinese major is additionally part of Royal Dutch Shell’s LNG Canada project under its own name PetroChina and has a stake in the Area 4 reserves in the Rovuma Basin offshore Mozambique with Italian company Eni and ExxonMobil.

PetroChina also operations three important Chinese LNG import terminals at Dalian and Tangshan in the northeast of the country and at Rudong in the central Jiangsu province in the coastal area near Shanghai.

PetroChina also receives natural gas pipeline supplies from Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.

“The production and sales plans for the first quarter were set in advance and lagged behind in terms of adjustment,” stated the company.

In response to the coronavirus pandemic and record-low oil prices, PetroChina said it would aim to “dynamically optimise” and adjust spending this year from a previously planned 295Bln yuan ($41Bln)

Its exploration and production business recorded a 14.88Bln yuan operating profit in the first quarter, up 3.9 percent and was helped by an 8.9 percent cut in operational costs.

PetroChina's crude oil throughput at refineries fell by 9.6 percent to 276.5 million barrels, or 3.04 million barrels per day, due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Sales of refined oil products, including gasoline, diesel and kerosene, fell 15.9 percent to 3,547.8 tonnes, reducing profits by around 20.11 billion yuan ($2.84Bln).