LNG

Kuwait Integrated Petroleum Industries Co. (KIPIC) has unloaded its first liquefied natural gas shipment at the Arab state’s onshore Al-Zour import terminal, the largest in the Middle East, and constructed to provide fuel and power to the refining and petrochemicals industries.

Qatar Petroleum has received offers for double the equity available to potential partners in the bidding process for the North Field East liquefued natural gas export plant expansion project in the Gulf.

Japanese spot LNG prices for delivered cargoes in February soared to as high as $16.30 per million British thermal units, a total of $10.80 per MMBtu more than in the same month last year.

Jan 20 (LNGJ) - Three LNG carriers, two from Russia and one from the US, are heading for the UK import facilities at the Port of Milford Haven in Wales, according to the port authorities. Two Russian cargoes from the Yamal plant in Siberia will arrive first. The 172,000 cubic metres capacity “Vladimir Vize” is due at the Shell-run Dragon terminal on January 22 with its cargo, followed on January 25 by the 172,660 cubic metres capacity “Yakov Kakkel” with a second Yamal shipment for the Dragon facility.

   The third LNG cargo is scheduled to arrive at Milford Haven from the US on January 26 on board the 165,000 cubic metres capacity “Marib Spirit”. The vessel will discharge its cargo from the Sabine Pass plant in Louisiana at Milford Haven’s other terminal, the South Hook facility, owned by Qatar Petroleum, US major ExxonMobil and Total of France.

Venice LNG, a company owned by Italian industrial groups Decal SpA, said it had obtained an authorization decree for the construction and operation of a small-scale LNG storage terminal in the industrial area of ​​Porto Marghera.

The permit has come from the Italian Ministry of Economic Development in agreement with the Ministry of Infrastructures and Transport.

The main infrastructure will consist of a 32,000 cubic metres capacity small-scale LNG import terminal able to receive feeder ships of up to 30,000 cubic metres capacity.

Facilities will be located in an area owned by Decal, alongside the existing oil storage site along the South Industrial Canal and on restored land formerly used for a coal plant.

Venice LNG's construction phase is expected to begin in the third quarter of 2021, while operations are scheduled for start-up by around mid-2024.

“This step forward in the fuel infrastructure for road and marine transport is made possible thanks to a private investment of over €100 million ($120M) by Decal Spa Group through its subsidiary Venice LNG,” said the company.

“The project is promoted and supported by the North Adriatic Sea Port Authority and co-financed by the European Commission under the Connecting Europe Facility initiative for a total of €18.5M ($22.3M),” it added.

LNG will arrive at the Venice storage terminal by small and medium-sized LNG carriers and will be distributed on tank trucks, ISO-tanks and barges.

“Thanks to LNG, pollutants in the atmosphere and in the waters of the Venice lagoon will be drastically reduced,” stated the company.

The authorization incorporates the requirements by all the authorities involved in the procedure, including the Veneto Region, and which must be fulfilled by Venice LNG before and during the construction and operation of the coastal storage facility.

Among the requirements, there will be mitigation of dust and noise emissions during the construction phase, along with an Environmental Monitoring Plan and the implementation of procedures to limit waste production.

“We are pleased to have reached the authorization decree, since it confirms the value of our project ,” said Gian Luigi Triboldi, President and Chief Executive of Venice LNG.

“Our project went through a long technical-administrative path, involving many authorities and the local community too. Now, we are ready to give our contribution to promote the use of LNG, which plays a key role in the energy transition process,” explained the CEO.

In addition to the storage tank, the Venice project also includes a jetty and a system to allow the loading of barges and the installation of a boil-off gas management system.

About three-quarters of the volumes will be aimed at the road transport market and the balance will be sold to the ship bunkering sector.

The largest LNG facility in the region is Adriatic LNG, which imports cargoes from Qatar to be fed into the Italian natural gas transmission system.

The EU is promoting small-scale LNG distribution and more use of the fuel in trucking as part of its clean energy policy.

With the implementation of the International Maritime Organization’s 0.5 percent global sulphur cap in 2020, LNG is being put forward as the most economic and viable alternative fuel for ship owners. 

Vietnam is making progress on developing four LNG import terminals and the latest to make a statement is one venture planned for the port city of Haiphong involving US major ExxonMobil Corp.

The governing People's Committee of Haiphong said it had approved a $5 billion LNG import terminal and power project scheduled to come on stream by 2026.

“The terminal will have a capacity of 6 million tonnes of LNG per annual and a power project built in two stages with a final generation capacity of 4,500 megawatts,” said the Haiphong authorities.

However. ExxonMobil has yet to confirm the venture, though one of its senior executives recently held talks with the Vietnamese Prime Minister.

A second Vietnamese LNG-for-Power venture is being developed by Singapore-based company Delta Offshore at Bac Lieu province in the Mekong Delta.

This project will also be built in four phases and is scheduled to be built by 2026.

A third 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 3,000MW power plant.

Vietnam said in June 2020 that talks had taken place by telephone between Nguyen Xuan Phuc and Irtiza Sayyed, President of ExxonMobil LNG Market Development, on LNG imports and power facilities.


The Hanoi government said in a statement at the time that a power project in Haiphong could use LNG imported from the United States or other countries.

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc had said 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.

ExxonMobil’s main US LNG export interests are as a shareholder in the Qatar Petroleum-led Golden Pass export project in Texas.

Qatar Petroleum owns 70 percent of the Golden Pass joint venture and ExxonMobil holds 30 percent.

Originally built as an import facility on the Sabine-Neches Waterway in Texas before the shale-gas revolution, Golden Pass will be reconfigured to export up to 15.6 million tonnes per annum of LNG.

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

The Mekong Delta facility will employ Stena’s Autonomous Transfer System (ATS) and Self-installing Regas Platform (SRP) solutions to provide energy for its power plants.

ExxonMobil Chairman and Chief Executive Darren W. Woods said the US major was still committed to its Mozambique liquefied natural gas project as well as to other ventures amid further delays, while cutting back immediately in US Permian Basin production.

Australian LNG export figures confirmed the nation as the world’s No. 1 producer with its 77.5 million tonnes outpacing Qatar last year and with nameplate capacity at Australian liquefaction plants at 88MT for the start of 2020.

Qatar Petroleum and ExxonMobil are celebrating the 10th anniversary of the South Hook LNG import terminal that created an “energy bridge” from the Middle East to the United Kingdom and was built at a cost of more than $1 billion to handle up to 20 percent of UK natural gas needs.

Ancala Partners, a London-based private equity fund, has acquired a 50 percent stake in the UK Dragon LNG import terminal in Milford Haven in Wales from Malaysian energy company Petronas.

The Petronas stake was sold for an undisclosed amount and Ancala’s partner in the LNG terminal will be Royal Dutch Shell.

Petronas was an original investor in the Dragon LNG facility with BG Group of the UK.

The Dragon facility came on line in 2009 alongside the existing South Hook LNG terminal, owned by Qatar Petroleum and ExxonMobil.

Shell then became a stakeholder in the terminal when it acquired BG in 2016.

The Dragon terminal is one of three LNG regasification facilities in the UK, the third being the Isle of Grain facility southeast of London, owned by National Grid.

The terminal has a gas send-out rate to the National Transmission System of up to 9 billion cubic metres of natural gas, or around 6.5 million tonnes of LNG.

Facilities at the terminal were recently enhanced through commissioning of a small-scale reliquification plant.

Petronas will continue to be a customer of the Dragon terminal as a counterparty to a long-term throughput agreement.

“Dragon LNG is well placed to benefit from reducing UK gas storage capacity and maturing North Sea gas production,” said Lee Mellor, a partner at Ancala.

“With revenues underpinned by a long-term availability-based throughput agreement with Shell and Petronas, the transaction represents an attractive addition to our portfolio and expands our midstream infrastructure activities,” added Mellor.

UK-based international law firm Dentons said it advised Petronas on the transaction.

The Dentons team was led by UK Energy partner Humphrey Douglas and supported by Energy senior associate Daniel Saville and associate Michael Walton.

Dentons added that PwC UK Corporate Finance acted as the financial advisor on the deal, led by Jon Shelley and Tom Copeland, and supported by David Isaacs.