LNG

French major TotalEnergies has signed an agreement to acquire all of Malaysian independent gas producer and operator Sapura-OMV Upstream, a Malaysian-Austrian joint venture and some of whose feed-gas assets are delivered to the Bintulu LNG plant.

Nov 22 (LNGJ) - OMV AG of Austria, the energy and utility company, plans to cooperate on LNG with Gazprom after the Russian natural gas giant increased deliveries of pipeline gas to the Austrians for a fifth straight year. For the period from January 1 to November 21, 2019, Gazprom delivered 12.7 billion cubic metres to Austria, which was 2.8 percent more than in all of 2018 when deliveries came to 12.3Bcm.

OMV is one of the five European corporate investors in the Nord Steam II project, the second Baltic pipeline from Russian to Germany and then onwards to other European Union nations carrying 55 Bcm of pipeline gas per annum. The latest Austrian gas delivery details emerged at a meeting in St Petersburg between Alexey Miller, Chairman of Gazprom, and OMV Chief Executive Rainer Seele.

“Special attention was paid to the implementation of the Nord Stream II project,” said a Gazprom statement on the talks. “Furthermore, potential cooperation in the LNG segment under the Memorandum of Understanding first signed in June 2019, was also discussed at the meeting,” it added. OMV along with France’s Engie, Royal Dutch Shell and Germany’s Uniper and Wintershall signed an agreement with Gazprom to provide financing for 50 percent of the total 9.5 billion euros ($10.5Bln) cost of Nord Steam II.

Royal Dutch Shell, one of the leading participants in the global LNG and natural gas market, is to end its 100-year presence in New Zealand by selling its shares in eight businesses for US$578 million to Austrian energy operator OMV, a company being helped by Shell to become an LNG importer using the Dutch port of Rotterdam.

OMV Gas Marketing of Austria has signed an LNG supply agreement with Qatargas, the world’s largest production company, with shipments to be delivered over a period of five years to the Dutch import terminal at the Port of Rotterdam.

Austrian oil and gas company OMV has entered the LNG market by securing a preliminary multi-year sales agreement with the trading subsidiary of Cheniere Energy, owner of the Sabine Pass export plant in Louisiana and of a second project being developed at the port of Corpus Christi in Texas.

KBR, the US engineering and construction company, is continuing with its success in winning more oil and gas and LNG contracts by being nominated for work on a key sour gas project in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates.

March 7 (LNGJ) - Austrian energy company OMV has paid German utility and energy player Uniper $1.85 billion to acquire its near 25 percent stake in the Russian Yuzhno-Russkoye natural gas field in Western Siberia. The Yuzhno-Russkoye gas field can produce up to 25 billion cubic metres per annum and is the key supplier to the Nord Stream pipeline which supplies Germany directly with Russian gas. The other shareholders in the field are Gazprom and German oil and gas company Wintershall.

March 6 (LNGJ) - Global commodities trader Vitol, increasingly active in the LNG market, has spent US$1.44 billion to purchase Turkish retail fuel company OMV Petrol Ofisi Holding from Austrian parent company OMV AG. Petrol Ofisi is the market leader in fuel products and distribution in Turkey with a market share of around 23 percent. Its business comprises the largest retail station network of over 1,700 service stations, the largest fuel storage and logistics business in Turkey with a total storage capacity in excess of 1 million cubic metres.
Ian Taylor, President and Chief Executive of Vitol, said: “This is a strong business in a growing market. Its market leading brand has benefitted from OMV’s focus on high standards of health and safety. We are committed to maintaining this excellent track record.”