LNG

The North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA), the UK regulator seeking more oil and gas exploration and production in British territorial waters that will affect future import needs for pipeline gas, LNG and oil has offered a total of 24 licences in the second tranche of the 33rd oil and gas licensing round.

Norway’s national energy company Equinor, a main pipeline natural gas and LNG supplier to Europe as well as being a prominent trader, made total tax contributions of over $49 billion in the last tax year, including $1Bln in environmental taxes under the EU Emissions Trading System, as prices surged following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Equinor said it focused on securing safe and reliable delivery of energy and became the largest provider of natural gas to Europe as supplies from Russian supplier Gazprom virtually ended.

“Equinor is dedicated to contributing to progress for the societies where we operate, and paying tax where value is created is an important part of this,” said Equinor Chief Financial Officer Torgrim Reitan.

Special year

“It was also a special year in 2022 in the energy markets with high and volatile prices, followed by substantial tax contributions,” Reitan added.

Equinor group companies contributed with tax, host government entitlements, royalties and fee payments totalling $49.2Bln. Of this, $44.3Bln was paid to Norway, where Equinor has the largest operations.

The company explained that financial results in 2022 were strengthened by the higher prices across energy markets compared with 2021 and with particularly high prices and higher production of gas to Europe.

“Tax payments from Equinor provides governments and authorities with opportunities to increase welfare and strengthen their societies,” said Equinor.

Governance

The Tax Contribution Report provides information about the corporate income tax Equinor paid in countries and locations where it does business.

“The report discloses Equinor’s approach to tax and tax strategy, compliance, and governance,” it added.

Equinor also emphasized that it supported policies promoting the goals of the Paris Agreement and backed a price on carbon emissions as a measure to drive emissions reductions.

“The CO2 tax in Norway has promoted development of technology and solutions to produce oil and gas with lower emissions from operations on the Norwegian Continental Shelf,” said CFO Reitan.

In 2022, Equinor said it paid $1.1 billion in environmental taxes and fees, including carbon quotas within the EU Emissions Trading System.

Equinor, the Norwegian energy company and the main pipeline natural gas supplier to the UK and the European Union, has brought online the world’s largest offshore wind farm as part of a joint venture development.

Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel has defended her natural gas and energy ties to Russia during her 16-year tenure, including the building of the Nord Stream II gas pipeline from Russia under the Baltic Sea to Germany where LNG will soon replace Gazprom supplies.

Equinor, the Norwegian LNG producer and largest supplier of pipeline natural gas to Europe, has signed a gas sales agreement with Poland for 10 years of supply through the new Baltic Pipe project.

Germany said Chancellor Olaf Scholz would discuss energy supplies, including possible LNG shipments, when he begins a tour on September 25 of the Arabian Gulf states.

A statement said that Scholz was scheduled to visit three countries Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

“The gas offering is slowly broadening,” said German Economics Minister Robert Habeck while visiting the Baltic Coast town of Lubmin.

Lubmin is in the German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and came to prominence in the gas business by being a landfall for the cancelled Nord Stream II natural gas pipeline under the Baltic from Russia.

Nord Stream II would have doubled German pipeline imports from Gazprom, though the completed project was blocked by the European Commission and also by Chancellor Scholz’s new coalition government that won the elections in September 2021.

Lubmin will now become one of four coastal hubs for LNG imports from the US, other European countries and possibly Qatar and the UAE.

“We must show that in times like these, we can plan, authorize and build faster than is usually the case in Germany,” said Habeck on the plan to site a floating storage and regasification unit at Lubmin.

Habeck is also Vice Chancellor and a member of the Green Party.

Start-ups

The operators of the Lubmin FSRU to be chartered by the German Government is aiming for an operational start-up by the end of 2023.

Germany’s opposition parties that won power before the events in Ukraine have mostly been against using natural gas.

The country was also one of the few leading European Union economies without LNG infrastructure, though one terminal was planned on the Elbe River but constantly opposed and demonstrated against as recently as last year by Habeck's Green Party and its supporters.

They quickly changed their minds on LNG after the gas crisis erupted and it was deemed to be a “transition” fuel by the panicked European Commission late in the day in 2022.

Other German LNG import terminal plans include a mixture of FSRUs and onshore facilities, though a final project list has yet to be published.

Among those advancing is an FSRU venture and a possible onshore facility at the port of Stade on the Elbe River backed by state government of Lower Saxony and by a development company, Hanseatic Energy Hub GmbH.

German is acquiring at least five FSRUs to move away as fast as possible from dependence on Russian pipeline natural gas from Gazprom.

The Stade seaport is situated on the Elbe sea-lane between Hamburg and the Elbe estuary at Cuxhaven and is close to the North Sea.

Chancellor Scholz said in a speech on September 13 that a series of planned new LNG import facilities would be ready for imports by the end of 2023.

He expected facilities to be developed quickly at the North Sea port of Wilhelmshaven and at Brunsbüttel, located south of Hamburg on the Elbe River and near the entrance to the Kiel Canal.

According to the German government, Wilhelmshaven will become the first LNG hub. Brunsbüttel will be the second to be completed and is backed by the Government, German utilities and the Dutch utility Gasunie.

Equinor confirmed that the Hammerfest LNG plant was resuming production in mid-May and would be part of the Norwegian company’s new planned natural gas production surge for Europe.

Norwegian energy company Equinor, whose Hammerfest LNG plant comes back on stream in mid-May 2022, said “unprecedented” European natural gas prices in the second half resulted in record high annual and fourth-quarter adjusted earnings after gas output was boosted.

Norwegian oil and gas company Equinor, the leading producer and exporter of West European pipeline natural gas and LNG, has brought on stream the third stage of the Troll gas field, extending the production lifespan beyond 2050.

Gassco, the Norwegian natural gas pipeline operator and one of the main competitors to LNG in Europe, said it transported record gas volumes to Germany in 2020.
The company said pipeline gas from the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS) played an important role in Europe’s energy supply.