LNG

July 18 (LNGJ) - Australian LNG operator Santos said LNG sales revenues in the second quarter dropped to US$762 million from US$838M in the prior-year quarter. Santos added that 22 LNG cargoes were shipped during the three months from the Gladstone LNG export plant in Queensland. However, no LNG cargoes were delivered from the Darwin LNG plant as the Bayu-Undan feed-gas field continues to deplete and volumes were being sent into the Australian Northern Territory market.

   “The Barossa gas project to backfill the Darwin LNG plant is 77 percent complete,” said the company. Santos added that a further 27 cargoes were exported from the Papua New Guinea liquefaction plant where the Adelaide-based company is a shareholder. Santos also noted that the company’s Moomba carbon-capture and sequestration project in south Australia was being commissioned and was on schedule for first injections of CO2 this year.

Santos Ltd, the Australian operator of two liquefied natural gas export plants and a main shareholder in Papua New Guinea LNG assets, has seen its shares surge on take-over speculation, separately involving the Saudi Arabian Oil Company and Abu Dhabi National Oil Company.

Santos Ltd, the Australian operator of two liquefied natural gas export plants and a main shareholder in Papua New Guinea LNG assets, has signed a long-term supply deal with Hokkaido Gas Co., the Japanese utility.

China Petroleum and Chemical Corp. (Sinopec), the leading Chinese refiner and an importer of LNG from Australia, the US, Qatar and elsewhere and with expanding import facilities and storage, reported a drop in net profits of nearly 9 percent as a “rapid” first-quarter increase in natural gas demand was offset by oil refining costs and losses in chemicals.

China National Offshore Oil Corp., the Chinese energy major and LNG player with growing natural has interests, has outlined its strategy in a post-earnings conference call after reporting a fall in profits despite record production.

Australia's Origin Energy, whose shareholders in December 2023 rejected a takeover by North American private equity firms, reported solid quarterly revenues from Australia-Pacific LNG in Queensland as domestic electricity and gas sales also rose in power markets.

Tlou Energy, the company developing projects in Sub-Saharan Africa, said the Lesedi gas-to-power project remained on track to get natural gas-fired power into the grid in Botswana from the southern African nation’s own coal-seam gas (CSG), a resource that is used by companies in Australia to produce and export LNG.

Asia-Pacific LNG operator Santos has secured significant additional carbon-storage acreage after being awarded a Gas Storage Retention Licence with a joint venture partner at a site west southwest of Moomba in South Australia where Santos is already constructing one of the world’s first industrial carbon-capture and storage (CCS) projects.

China Petroleum and Chemical Corp. (Sinopec), whose LNG assets include a stake in the Australia-Pacific LNG plant in Queensland and an expansion venture in Qatar, said third-quarter net profits increased by 34 percent and revenues also moved higher along with demand for natural gas and refined products.

Australia is considering extending the life of the country’s largest coal-fired power plant located in the state of New South Wales and owned by Australia-Pacific LNG stakeholder Origin Energy because of concerns over energy security.