LNG

Höegh LNG Ltd, the owner and operator of 13 LNG vessels including floating storage and regasification (FSRU) units, said it was focusing ensuring that FSRU projects commence operations as planned for customers in Germany, France and Brazil over the coming months as it posted increased profits.

Australian energy infrastructure company Jemena is starting work on the upgrade of the Port Kembla lateral pipeline for the nation’s first LNG regasification facility being deployed to strengthen the security of gas supply for the state of New South Wales and the East Coast gas market.

Höegh LNG Holdings, the Norwegian shipping company acquired in a takeover by Norwegian interests and a unit of US investment bank Morgan Stanley, posted a wider loss in the first quarter of 2021 as it reported setbacks in its tenders for projects.

Venice Energy, the group planning a project to import LNG into South Australia, said it signed a project agreement with Flinders Ports that sets out the framework to support the development of the floating facility in Port Adelaide.

A concept design has been agreed by both companies that would guide the development of two new operating berths as well as associated onshore facilities at Outer Harbor, subject to development approval.

Venice Energy said its LNG import facility would enhance the supply of gas to South Australian domestic and industrial users.

Managing Director of Venice Energy, Kym Winter-Dewhirst, said the terminal would bring significant benefits to the state.

“Importing LNG into South Australia will improve and diversify local gas supplies, especially during peak periods and help to underpin South Australia’s globally leading renewables sector by providing firm despatchable energy at times when wind and solar are not operating,” explained Winter-Dewhirst.

“It will also increase the State’s energy security and enable downward pressure on gas prices for all users,” he added.

“Our proposed facility is expected to bring around 80 petajoules per annum (2.14 billion cubic metres) of natural gas into South Australia and with supplies forecast to tighten in just a few years’ time, importing LNG makes sense,” he stated.

The proposed facility would be located adjacent to the Pelican Point gas fired power station next to the already productive Flinders Ports quay line.

Subject to various approvals and other issues set out in the project agreement with Flinders Ports, the facility is expected to be operational by 2022.

At least two other Australian LNG import projects are progressing, including one by billionaire businessman Andrew Forrest's Squadron Energy in New South Wales at Port Kembla, south of Sydney.

A second Australian LNG import project is proposed at Crib Point at the Port of Hastings in the state of Victoria by AGL Energy.

Australia, while being the world's largest LNG exporter, is moving to LNG imports in southeast Australia because of natural gas shortages for industrial and domestic retail supplies.

Australian company Cooper Energy and Japanese trading house and LNG buyer, the Mitsui Group, said they planned to invest in buying and upgrading the idle Minerva Gas Plant in the state of Victoria to boost offshore natural gas supplies in southeast Australia.

Copper said both companies would make a joint commitment of A$55 million (US$384Mlb) to support increased and new domestic gas supply for the region.

The companies said A$37M would be spent on upgrading the plant, A$17.8M on purchasing it and on engineering and maintenance.

“This investment decision represents an important milestone in Cooper Energy’s continuing growth as a safe, competitive, efficient and reliable developer and marketer of new gas supplies for homes and businesses in southeast Australia,” said Cooper Energy Managing Director David Maxwell.

The infrastructure works at the Minerva Gas Plant will enable the supply of 16 petajoules of currently undeveloped gas.

Maxwell said this was an important commitment to infrastructure investment, local jobs and increased domestic gas supply.

“This is a ‘shovel-ready project’ which will see Cooper Energy and Mitsui Group upgrade the idle Minerva Gas Plant to be a processing hub for local production and discoveries in the offshore Otway Basin in Victoria,” explained Maxwell.

The Minerva Gas Plant is located near Port Campbell in Victoria and will be renamed the Athena Gas Plant in recognition of the expansion of its role in processing new supplies from the Otway gas fields.

“It means local jobs for local contractors which will help deliver reliable gas supplies into the East Coast market,” he stated.

“The investment follows the successful exploration program by Cooper Energy and Mitsui Group resulting in the Annie-1 gas discovery, in the Otway Basin, the first offshore discovery in southeast Australia over seven years,” added Maxwell.

The Cooper-Mitsui investment comes as two LNG import projects advance in southeast Australia to alleviate natural gas shortages.

Australian utility AGL Energy is progressing with its LNG import terminal project at Crib Point on Westernport Bay, south of the Victoria state capital Melbourne.

AGL said recently its environmental statement would be open for public comment until 26th of August 2020.

Subject to clearance, AGL hopes to make a final investment decision on the Crib Point project around the end of 2020.

A second LNG project aimed at ending gas shortages is being developed by Australian Industrial Energy (AIE) in the state of New South Wales at Port Kembla, south of Sydney.

That project is backed by the world’s largest LNG purchaser, JERA Co. Inc. of Japan, the Japanese trading house Marubeni Corp and Australian mining billionaire Andrew Forrest’s Squadron Energy.

The Minerva Gas plant project proposes to draw gas from four offshore wells (Casino-4, Casino-5, Henry-2, and Netherby-1) into the onshore plant via a pipeline tie-in and minor modifications.

“This will improve recovery enabled by lower plant inlet pressure and provide the ability to offer customers firm supply,” Cooper Energy explained.

“Following the completion and performance testing, first gas is expected to be delivered to the Minerva plant within the September quarter 202. This expectation incorporates allowances for uncertainty from Covid-19 as it is presently understood,” the company statement concluded.

Nov 6 (LNGJ) - Epik Co, a South Korea-based liquefied natural gas project company, said it had appointed Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ) to serve as its financial adviser for the Port of Newcastle GasDock LNG import terminal venture in New South Wales.

   ANZ will provide debt and equity services for Epik’s project involving the deployment of a Korean-built floating storage and regasification unit and onshore infrastructure. A final investment decision is expected in mid-2020. The Korean regasification project is the second proposed for the state of New South Wales with another venture planned for Port Kembla, south of Sydney, and supported by Japanese companies.

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Australian Industrial Energy and two Japanese partners building the first Australian liquefied natural gas import terminal at Port Kembla to bring in shipments of LNG for the state of New South Wales by 2020 have received their first firm order at oil-linked prices.

AIE, part of the Minderoo investment and mining group, has joined with Japanese companies Marubeni Corp. and JERA Co. Inc. to develop an LNG import facility near Sydney to make up domestic natural gas shortfalls during peak demand periods on the southeast Coast.

The Port Kembla floating import terminal joint venture said the first order had come from EnergyAustralia, the nation’s third-largest utility.

Port Kembla is an existing industrial cargo port with man-made breakwaters about 100 kilometres south of Sydney in the Illawarra region.

The Port Kembla terminal will initially handle around 2 million tonnes per annum of LNG.

AIE said it had agreed to supply 15 petajoules a year of natural gas, or around 400 million cubic metres, to EnergyAustralia over five years starting from January 2021 at oil-linked prices.

Analysts said this was more lucrative for the sellers at a time of solid oil prices over $70 a barrel rather than natural gas benchmarks such as the Henry Hub used in US LNG sales deals.

“It’s an agreement that provides their business with certainty in the face of increasingly challenging domestic gas market supply,” said Stuart Johnston, Chief Executive of the AIE subsidiary, Squadron Energy.

AIE is seeking to secure customers before making a final investment decision on the A$250 million (US$170 million) project.

The NSW Government has already given planning approval for the AIE-led venture comprising a floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU), a wharf infrastructure and a pipeline to connect to the existing NSW East Coast gas network.

The Port Kembla project believes that once operational, the terminal could supply 70 percent of the state's annual gas demand and help to ease the cost of energy bills for the 33,000 businesses and a million households in NSW that depend on natural gas.

The project is led by the Minderoo group, controlled by Australian billionaire Andrew Forrest.

Marubeni, a long-standing global LNG market participant, is also taking part along with JERA, now the largest Japanese utility company after being formed as part of a merger between many assets owned by Tokyo Electric Power Co. and Chubu Electric.

The choice of Port Kembla was the result of a joint feasibility study launched in February 2018 when the joint venture was first established.

The LNG terminal is regarded as a lower-cost alternative to a proposed Australian inter-state pipeline from West to East at a cost of around A$5 billion.

At least two other LNG regasification ventures are moving forward in NWS and in the southeast state of Victoria.

Hoegh LNG, the Norwegian fleet owner and floating import project developer, reported rising profits as it advanced with projects to supply two Australian states with natural gas, while focusing on China and listing more than a dozen other countries likely to deploy floating storage and regasification units as terminals.

A South Korea-based liquefied natural gas project company has signed a development agreement with the Australian port of Newcastle, north of Sydney, to commence preliminary works on a proposed LNG import terminal using a floating storage and regasification unit.