LNG

QatarEnergy said it delivered the 1,000th liquefied natural gas shipment to the South Hook LNG Terminal at the Welsh port of Milford Haven on the southwest coast of the United Kingdom.

Qatar Gas Transport Company, known as Nakilat and with an LNG fleet of 69 vessels, has posted record net profits as demand for deliveries soared around the world.

Petronet LNG, the owner of the largest Indian import terminal at Dahej north of Mumbai, reported record revenues and profits amid declining cargo volumes in 2022 as energy prices jumped while domestic and industrial natural gas demand was variable.

Shenzhen Energy, the Chinese natural gas and power company, said it signed a long-term LNG supply agreement with UK major BP for volumes to fuel gas-fired power plants in what is the second large contract signed by a Chinese company in November 2022.

Nov 16 (LNGJ) - Another LNG cargo is heading for the UK port of Milford Haven this week on board the 173,400 cubic metres capacity “Flex Constellation”, according to the port authorities. The US shipment is scheduled to arrive on November 20 at the port’s South Hook terminal after being lifted on November 6 from the Cameron export plant in Louisiana.

Adriatic LNG, the operator of the largest of three Italian regasification terminals, said it was ready to offer more capacity to Italy and Europe with an increase from 8 billion cubic metres per annum to 9 Bcm per annum.

The terminal is located 15 kilometres (9.3 miles) off the Veneto coastline and is a gravity-based structure.

The Italian Ministry of Ecological Transition, with Decree 4 of March 15, 2022, verified the facility’s compliance with the environmental pre-operating conditions of a new decree.

The terminal has been on line since autumn 2009 and is a private operator. It is co-controlled by ExxonMobil Italiana Gas and Qatar Terminal Ltd, a subsidiary of QatarEnergy, while Italian gas network operator SNAM has a 7.3 percent shareholding.

It has so far handled more than 800 cargoes at its offshore base. The terminal includes two LNG storage tanks, each with a capacity of 125,000 cubic metres.

“The Adriatic LNG terminal is a unique case in the panorama of Italian and European regasification terminals, as it has for years boasted the highest average utilization rate. It was 92 percent in 2021 against a monthly average at European level of between 29 percent and 40 percent,” said the company.

Private resources

“In addition, the infrastructure was built and is managed with private resources without, therefore, any financial burden on the gas system and without constituting a cost in the bill for citizens,” it added.

By increasing its regasification capacity, Adriatic LNG will be able to make a greater contribution to meeting the country's natural gas needs as it will be able to cover around 12 percent of annual Italian consumption.

“We have reached an important milestone at a critical time for our country's energy security,” said Alfredo Balena, Director of Public of Government Affairs at Adriatic LNG.

“Increasing the capacity of our terminal represents for Italy and also for Europe a tangible way to increase and diversify LNG imports,” added Balena.

Adriatic LNG is capable of receiving almost all classes of LNG carriers, with a capacity ranging from 65,000 cubic metres up to 217,000 cubic metres capacity.

The increase in regasification capacity at the Adriatic terminal will be achieved through the optimisation of the operating conditions of the infrastructure, without any structural changes to the current configuration.

The eight supplying countries so far to the Adriatic facility have been Qatar, Angola, Egypt, Trinidad and Tobago, Equatorial Guinea, Norway, Nigeria and the US.

Gastrade SA, the Greek company developing an offshore LNG import terminal to serve eastern Greece and the Balkan nations, said a positive final investment decision has been taken to proceed with the joint venture.

JERA Co. Inc., the largest Japanese LNG buyer and power assets holder, has stated it would not be renewing long-term supply contracts for volumes from projects at Ras Laffan in Qatar amounting to 5.5 million tonnes per annum.

The contracts with Qatar are expiring at the end of the year. The deals were originally signed in 1997 and 1998 for the Qatargas 1 project.

JERA had inherited most of its worldwide contracts from Tokyo Electric Power Co. and Chubu Electric when the JERA joint venture was set up.

“Currently we are not considering contracting because we find it extremely difficult to extend the existing large contracts timing-wise,” JERA President Satoshi Onoda said of the Qatari long-term deals during a virtual conference.

The JERA President emphasized that the Tokyo-based company did not have a plan to give up all of its long-term LNG supply contracts.

Long-term portfolio

These sale and purchases agreements span liquefaction plants in Australia such as Wheatstone LNG, Darwin LNG, the FLNG Prelude plant as well as projects in Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei and Papua New Guinea.

The Japanese company also receives cargoes from the Freeport export plant in Texas and could focus on more US volumes, as well as in the short-term spot LNG when needed.

In mid-November 2021, JERA s purchased a significant stake in Freeport LNG at Quintana Island in Texas and will invest in expansions as part of a plan to be able to direct cargoes to Japan even when global supplies are tight.

The Japanese company’s US subsidiary JERA Americas Inc., concluded a securities purchase agreement with infrastructure fund Global Infrastructure Partners to acquire around a 25.7 percent interest in Freeport for $2.5 billion.

For this transaction, JERA appointed US investment bank Goldman Sachs as its exclusive financial advisor.

The Freeport plant is located in Brazoria County, south of Houston, and is run by Chief Executive Michael Smith, an energy entrepreneur who developed the plant with almost 15 million tonnes per annum of LNG capacity.

It has use-or-pay liquefaction tolling agreements for most of the output from the three Trains with customers including JERA as well as Japanese utility Osaka Gas and European-based companies, UK major BP and German utility Uniper.

JERA noted that, together with Freeport LNG, the Japanese company has already contributed to the stable operation of Train 1 of the Freeport liquefaction project through its participation in that subsidiary.

JERA plans to work with Freeport to advance new LNG projects including production capacity expansion and the development of Train 4.

Indian liquefied natural gas imports plunged more than 21 percent, even more than in the previous month, as the costs of LNG shipments soared, though volumes were offset by offshore domestic natural gas pipeline supplies on the East Coast that jumped more than 24 percent.

US LNG equipment-maker and industrial gases company Air Products has signed a $12-billion project financing and assets agreement for a gasification and power venture for Jazan Economic City with partners Saudi Arabia Oil Company (Aramco) and Saudi firm ACWA Power.