LNG

AES Corp. of the US whose businesses include electricity supplies and stakes in liquefied natural gas and power in the Dominican Republic and Panama, has been able to narrow its net losses amid changing markets and as its swallows the high cost of moving to renewables.

AES Corp. of the US has closed sell-downs of minority stakes in its liquefied natural gas and power businesses in the Dominican Republic and its AES Colón business in Panama for proceeds of $338 million.

“This includes the transactions announced in September for proceeds of $179M after purchase price adjustments at closing, as well as sell-downs of additional stakes in the businesses through the expansion of existing partnerships with Grupo Estrella and Grupo Popular's subsidiary, AFI Popular, through one of its closed-end funds for $159M,” said a statement.

Under these deals AES sold 20 percent of its businesses in the Dominican Republic and 35 percent of AES Colón in Panama.

The AES assets in the Dominican Republic include an LNG regasification terminal with a 160,000 cubic metres capacity storage tank.

They also include the AES Andres 319 megawatts combined-cycle gas-fired power plant, the DPP 328 MW CCGT power plant as well as an additional 150 MW of solar and wind power plants.

The AES Colón assets comprise a 381MW CCGT plant with an adjacent regasification facility that has an LNG storage tank with capacity of 180,000 cubic metres.

AES, which is based in Arlington, Virginia, and is listed on the New York Stock Exchange, said it would  continue operating its businesses in the Dominican Republic and Panama with reamaining ownership interests of 65 percent in each business.

“We are very pleased to announce the closing of these transactions and to continue the great progress on our expanded and accelerated asset sale proceeds target,” said Stephen Coughlin, AES Executive Vice Present and Chief Financial Officer.

Various deals

“These transactions include the closing of the two previously announced sell-downs, as well as the sale of an additional 10 percent in the Dominican Republic and an additional 15 percent of AES Colón in Panama,” Coughlin added.

The deals that were closed included the sale of 20 percent of AES's businesses in the Dominican Republic with 10 percent going to Grupo Popular's subsidiary, AFI Popular, through one of its closed-end funds.

A further 5 percent was bought by Grupo Linda and 5 percent has gone to Grupo Estrella.

The sales of 35 percent of AES Colón included 20 percent to Grupo Linda and 15 percent to Grupo Estrella.

Since its third quarter 2023 earnings in November, AES has also announced the signing of an agreement to sell its Mong Duong 2 coal facility in Vietnam.

It has additionally sold down its stake in Fluence, a products and services company of Germany's Siemens, from 33 percent to 29 percent, effectively monetizing 12 percent of its stake for proceeds of $160M.

TotalEnergies, the French major under fire for its energy links to Russia, is now the target of European Union-led critics who wish to tax energy companies more, using almost any pretext.

PetroVietnam Gas said it was making progress with plans to raise investments for infrastructure for importing, storing and distributing liquefied natural gas nationwide and the start-up of LNG imports is just a year away .

A board meeting of PV Gas said that each region of the southeast Asian nation would have one of three proposed LNG hubs.

These are the Thi Vai LNG storage and regasification terminal in the South, the Son My LNG storage and regas facility in the central region and a large storage and regas hub icovering Quang Ninh, Hai Phong and Thanh Hoa in the North.

PV Gas said the aim was to begin importing LNG cargoes by 2022 as the company explained that its own domestic natural gas production has declined.

The state-owned energy firm said that currently, there was a focus on the construction of an import terminal and storage with a capacity of one million tonnes of LNG per annum in Thi Vai. PV Gas said the Thi Vai LNG project is about 90 percent complete.

“It is expected to be put into operation in the third quarter of 2022 and other infrastucture, including an LNG jetty for tankers in Thi Vai, are also being worked on,” said PV Gas in a statement.

The company said it was focusing on preparing short and medium-term LNG import agreements.

US agreement

PV GAS and US-based AES Corp, have a joint venture agreement on the establishment and operation of the central region’s Son My LNG port and storage hub.

PetroVietnam signed an agreement with AES in September 2021 to form a joint venture for a $1.3Bln LNG terminal linked to a power project at Son My, located in Binh Thuan province.

AES, based in Arlington, Virginia, is an experienced LNG industry participant, having set up Caribbean LNG imports for the Dominican Republic way back in 2003 with the facility at Punta Caucedo operated by its subsidiary AES Andres.

AES was also behind the debut of Panama as an LNG importer with its Costa Norte project in operation since 2018.

Vietnam is developing up to six LNG import projects backed by power plant developments along its coast from the northern port of Haiphong to the ports in the South.

PV Gas, whose headquarters are in Ho Chi Minh City, became one of several Vietnamese businesses with a market capitalisation approaching US$10 billion as the stock price has risen by 48 percent since the beginning of 2021.

It hit a record at 125,000 Vietnamese dong per share in October.

However, the shares have since dropped to 118,900 dong per share, giving the company a current market capitalization of 22,605 trillion dong (US$8.72Bln).

In the last quarter, PV Gas posted consolidated profits after tax of 2.46 trillion dong ($95.3 million).

There are two official stock exchanges in Vietnam, one called the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HOSE) and the second is the Hanoi Stock Exchange (HNX).

Securities of unlisted public companies may be registered to be traded on the regulated over-the-counter (OTC) market on the Hanoi Stock Exchange.

The number of listings on each exchange is about 380 as of the start of 2021.

The Government has already approved a plan to set up the Vietnam Stock Exchange (VSE) based on the consolidation of the HOSE and the HNX.

The VSE will be a 100 percent state-owned limited liability company.

PetroVietnam has signed an agreement with US company AES Corp to form a joint venture for a $1.3 billion liquefied natural gas import terminal linked to a power project at Son My in Binh Thuan province of Vietnam.

PetroVietnam’s natural gas subsidiary, PetroVietnam Gas, said the terminal would import around 3.6 million tonnes per annum of LNG cargoes to the Asian nation by 2025.

“The signing took place in New York City and was one of the main activities on the sidelines on the occasion of President Nguyen Xuan Phuc's participation in the joint discussions session of the 76th United Nations General Assembly,” said a statement from PetroVietnam.

The AES-PetroVietnam LNG signing ceremony was attended by Vietnamese state leaders, including the President himself, who made a speech, as well as Nguyen Chi Dung, Minister of Planning and Investment, Nguyen Hong Dien, Minister of Industry, and Trade and Nguyen Thanh Nghi, Minister of Construction.

The AES LNG-for-power project in Vietnam was first discussed at the Indo-Pacific Business Forum in October 2020, attended by the then US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

AES, based in Arlington, Virginia, is an experienced LNG industry participant, having set up LNG imports for the Dominican Republic way back in 2003 with the import facility at Punta Caucedo operated by its subsidiary AES Andres.

AES was also behind the debut of Panama as an LNG importer with its Costa Norte project in operation since 2018.

Vietnam is developing up to six LNG import projects backed by power plant developments along its coast from the northern port of Haiphong to the ports in the South.

The President said in his speech that this was a project that had received the attention of the two states of Vietnam and the United States, leading to the establishment of the joint venture, Son My LNG.

“I hope that the construction of the Son My LNG Terminal will contribute to ensuring the supply of LNG for our power generation needs in key economic regions,” he stated.

PetroVietnam executives also attended, including Chairman Hoang Quoc Vuong and Duong Manh Son, General Director of PetroVietnam Gas.

On the AES side were Bernerd Da Santos, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, David Stone, President of AES Vietnam, Joe Uddo, Vice President of AES Market Development and Gaelle Burkhart, AES Global Cooperation Director.

Speaking for AES, COO Da Santos expressed his sincere appreciation of his company’s relationship with PetroVietnam.

“We thank the Government and all the ministries and especially the attention and direction given to the project by President Nguyen Xuan Phuc and his attendance at this event,” said Da Santos

“The signatories of the Agreement promise to be determined in developing the joint venture so that the Son My LNG can start operating as a development company in November 2021,” added Da Santos.

AES Corp., the US company that was the first to develop an LNG import terminal in the Caribbean, was named by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo as the latest American corporation to be involved in LNG and power infrastrasture development in Vietnam.

Pompeo told a virtual conference of the Indo-Pacific Business Forum that AES would sign an agreement with PetroVietnam Gas for a $2.8-billion LNG-to-power project in the southeast Asian nation.

AES is an experienced LNG industry participant, having set up LNG imports for the Dominican Republic way back in 2003 with the import facility at Punta Caucedo operated by its subsidiary AES Andres.

“Vietnam has given the green light to AES Corp., a company based in Virginia, to go forward with the project,” stated Pompeo at the online forum.

AES was also behind the debut of Panama as an LNG importer with its Costa Norte project in operation since 2018.

Vietnam is developing four LNG import projects backed by power plant developments along its coast from northern port of Haiphong to the ports in the South.

Vietnamese officials also said after the declaration by Secretary of State Pompeo that Delta Offshore Energy, the Singapore-based company developing an LNG and power project in Bac Lieu province in the Mekong Delta, has moved forward with its plans.

They said that the Bac Lieu province LNG-to-power project had signed preliminary contracts with several US engineering and equipment companies, naming McDermott International and Bechtel Inc. as well as power plant supplier General Electric.

Pompeo said it was a “real win-win” situation for the US and Vietnam as the AES deal and others would also open the door for the supply of billions of dollars of US LNG shipments and investments with Vietnamese and other partners in power infrastructure.

The forum was also attended by Pompeo’s Vietnamese counterpart Pham Binh Minh.

Pompeo made his remarks on an Asian tour, taking in India, Sri Lanka, the Maldives and Indonesia.

Vietnam is building four LNG-to-power plants, with the first to be operational by 2023.

Vietnam said in June 2020 that talks had taken place by telephone between Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc and ExxonMobil on the development of a power and LNG venture in Haiphong.

Prime Minister Nguyen said at the time that he welcomed ExxonMobil’s willingness to invest in Vietnam in many areas, including natural gas exploration and LNG, petrochemical refining and electricity production from LNG.

The Bac Lieu project of Delta Offshore is the most advanced of the planned Vietnamese LNG terminal build-out and the company said in September 2020 that it had also signed a technology license agreement with Sweden’s Stena Power and LNG Solutions for jetty-less LNG receiving and regasification technology.

A third Vietnamese LNG terminal is envisaged adjacent to a gas-fired power station in Ninh Thuan province, south of Cam Ranh Bay.

The fourth project is at Long An, also on the Mekong Delta, and this will see the development of a 3,000-megawatts power plant as well as an import terminal.

Sycar, a US company based in Florida, said it was planning to develop a liquefied natural gas import terminal for the South American nation of Ecuador with construction of facilities scheduled to start in 2021 to support a floating LNG venture and eventually an onshore terminal.

New Fortress Energy, the New York-based LNG developer in the Caribbean and Central America,  said it was progressing with construction of a Mexican liquefied natural gas import and regasification terminal in the port of Pichilingue on the Pacific Coast.

AES Corp., the US power company and Caribbean LNG import terminal owner, has named Belgian engineering firm Tractebel as owner’s engineer for the expansion of the existing LNG terminal near Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic.

The Panama Canal Authority will boost the number of daily reserved transit slots available for LNG vessels by reserving night-time slots starting in October 2018 and would make more infrastructure improvements to allow another increase by 2022.