LNG

Gazprom shareholders have just held their annual general meeting and despite Western sanctions wiping out profits in the past year and leading to a net loss, one of the world’s largest gas companies has started rebuilding new markets to replace the European Union.

Trading Hub Europe GmbH, Germany’s market area manager for the nation’s natural gas system and now including deliveries to four LNG import destinations, has arranged a series of meetings in German and English to engage in discussions with market participants and present forthcoming changes in the German gas market.

Moody’s Investors Service, the US ratings agency, said in a report into liquefied natural gas that Chinese demand in 2024 will be similar to last year and while European gas markets remained resilient the region’s reliance on LNG could increase price volatility.

European natural gas prices have failed to be influenced by continuing attacks on shipping in the Red Sea in 2024 as weak fundamentals push natural gas price forecasts lower amid soft demand and record storage.

Norway, the nation that helped restore Europe’s energy security with natural gas, oil and LNG supplies after Russian links were cut following the invasion of Ukraine two years ago, has become the first country in the world to approve commercial deep-sea mining in its waters to supply rare minerals needed to make electric vehicles and other technology.

The Norwegian Parliament voted 80-20 on January 9 to approve a cross-party proposal that could revolutionise the global supply of minerals, which are pivotal for an array of clean technologies, including batteries for electric vehicles.

Under the new legislation Norway is opening up 280,000 square kilometres (108,000 square miles) of the Norwegian Continental Shelf, an area equivalent to the size of the UK, for the granting of exploration licences for minerals and chemical elements such as lithium, cobalt and scandium.

Norway’s approval of deep-sea mining in its own waters will add momentum to moves to open up some international waters for extracting rare minerals.

Mineral sources

Lithium and cobalt are only found below ground in a small number of countries, including onshore the Republic of Congo in West Africa, which will also soon become an LNG exporter with an offshore natural gas project being developed by Italian major Eni.

Norway itself has impeccable environmental and conservation profile as a nation and easily stepped in to increase its natural gas supplies to Europe when Russian deliveries were cut after the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

The Norwegians are also Europe’s largest producers of hydro-electric power and more than 95 percent of their electricity and 50 percent of all the country’s power comes from renewables, including wind.

The Norwegians also run the Hammerfest LNG export plant on Melkoya Island in northern Norway supplying nations such as France, the Netherlands, Italy, the UK, Spain and Lithuania with cargoes.

Failure of ideas

The Norwegian move on deep-sea mining was, of course, condemned by the environmental groups, run by the elites and who have forced governments to get petrol-driven cars off the road and replace them with electric vehicles without themselves coming up with any worthwhile suggestions except for sowing chaos and energy poverty.

Analysts say that estimates for the rare minerals industry’s new potential range from hundreds of millions to trillions of dollars.

They add that pressure from opponents mean detailed environmental studies will have to be carried out before any mining can take place, potentially delaying extraction until the 2030s.

None of Norway’s 17 protected marine areas are included in the Norwegian zones proposed for mining and the Government in Oslo has insisted that every commercial licence will have to be approved by its parliament, the Storting.

The first steps for commercial mining companies will be to undertake exploration and mapping activities to increase knowledge of what is below ground in the NCS.

The Russian Finance Ministry said that that the federation’s oil and gas revenues decreased by 26 percent in the first 10 months of the year amid warnings that natural gas and LNG producer Gazprom was heading for record losses and another gas company Novatek faced financial disruption to its Arctic LNG II project.

The European Union is moving forward with its plan to seek pooled natural gas purchases under a programme called AggregateEU and set to be launched in June with the aim of reducing prices and increasing efficiency in fully replacing Russian pipeline gas supplies to Germany and the EU.

The bankruptcy procedure for Nord Stream II AG, the Swiss-based operator of the Nord Stream II gas pipeline from Russia to Germany under the Baltic Sea, was extended by six more months until July 2023, according to the Swiss Official Gazette of Commerce.

German Chancellor Helmut Scholz has led an inauguration ceremony for the nation’s first LNG floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU), the “Höegh Esperanza”, at the North Sea port of Wilhelmshaven.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has held bilateral talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin covering a proposed natural gas hub and other energy projects for both countries flowing through Turkey.