LNG

Gazprom shareholders have just held their annual general meeting and despite Western sanctions wiping out profits in the past year and leading to a net loss, one of the world’s largest gas companies has started rebuilding new markets to replace the European Union.

April 29 (LNGJ) - Russian natural gas production is expected to increase by 4.6 percent in 2024 to 666.7 billion cubic metres, while pipeline gas exports are forecast to rise by 7 percent to 108 Bcm. Russia’s Non-Commonwealth of Independent States natural gas prices for nations such as China and Turkey are expected to be at the level of around $297.3 per 1,000 cubic metres in 2024.

   The official Russian data said that LNG exports are forecast to grow by 14 percent to 38 million tonnes in 2024, though no provision is included in the data for tougher sanctions against Russian LNG currently being considered by the European Union. “Gas production is expected to continue growing to 695.4 Bcm in 2025 and pipeline gas exports will grow to 120 Bcm in 2025,” the report said.

Russian natural gas company Gazprom said flows to China on the “Power of Siberia” pipeline have resumed after scheduled maintenance, offsetting the need for higher LNG imports during the Northern Hemisphere summer season.

Adriatic LNG, the import terminal offshore northeast Italy, reported a record year in terms of shipments and regasified volumes delivered into the Italian national grid.

The operating company, Terminale GNL Adriatico, is a gravity-based terminal that came on line in 2009 and 70-percent owned by ExxonMobil Corp.

The other minority shareholders include a subsidiary of QatarEnergy and the Italian grid operator and import terminals owner, SNAM.

“The regasification terminal located off the Veneto coast sent 8.5 billion cubic metres of natural gas into the national pipeline network, an increase of 7 percent from the previous year,,” said Adriatic LNG.

Steady cargo flow

A total of 75 LNG carriers called at the terminal last year, mainly from Qatar and the United States but also from other geographical areas, including, for the first time, Mozambique.

The volumes provided over 14 percent of natural gas consumption and confirmed itself as the third main entry source for Italian gas imports.

“The terminal therefore broke its previous best annual record, scored in 2022, when it sent 7.9 Bcm of gas into the national grid,” added the company.

Adriatic LNG noted that the results confirmed the increasing relevance of LNG in the Italian energy mix.

In 2023, total LNG imports to Italy amounted to 16.6 Bcm, a 16.8 percent increase compared with 2022.

The cargoes met 27 percent of the national natural gas needs of 61.5 Bcm.

Strategic infrastructure

For all of 2023 over 50 percent of Italian LNG imports were shipped through Adriatic LNG.

“Our terminal confirmed to be a strategic energy infrastructure for Italy and Europe,” said Alfredo Balena, Director of External Relations at Adriatic LNG.

“We can say that the 8.5 Bcm of natural gas injected by Adriatic LNG into the national grid represent an energy quantity equivalent to approximately 93 million megawatt-hours, equivalent to the total energy consumed the Veneto and Lombardy regions for a year,” stated Balena.

In total, from 2009 to 2023, 1,058 LNG carriers arrived at the regasification terminal for a total of 92 Bcm of gas sent into the national gas grid.

“The security of energy supplies in Europe and Italy is and will increasingly be based on LNG,,” Balena explained.

“The significant growth in LNG imports occurring over the last two years is linked to efforts being made to reduce dependence, and increase resilience, of the European gas system,” he concluded.

The Russian Finance Ministry said that that the federation’s oil and gas revenues decreased by 26 percent in the first 10 months of the year amid warnings that natural gas and LNG producer Gazprom was heading for record losses and another gas company Novatek faced financial disruption to its Arctic LNG II project.

A huge floating LNG storage unit, the “Saam FSU”, arrived in Russian waters off Murmansk on June 25 as LNG developer Novatek re-organizes its trading logistics for the Yamal export plant and the new Arctic LNG II project as the Yamal facility also started a shutdown and maintenance programme.

Russian natural gas company Gazprom said it had halted supplies to China through the “Power of Siberia” pipeline running from Russia’s Far East into China’s northeast Heilongjiang province.

The 41st edition of the CERAWeek energy conference in Houston attended by around 6,000 delegates focused on the second day on issues such as European and US natural gas and also on the main Texas commodity - crude oil.

Jan 24 (LNGJ) – Russia’s Gazprom said it was meeting Greek company Prometheus Gas S.A. on January 27 to consider unwinding the 50-50 joint venture set up in 1991 between Gazprom Export and Greece’s Copelouzos Group.

   Gazprom said that natural gas deliveries to Prometheus Gas under a contract with Gazprom Export began in October 2016. Then in 2017 the companies signed a long-term contract for the supply of up to 1 billion cubic metres of gas annually to Greece from January 2018 to December 2027. “The three main importers of Russian natural gas in Greece are the state gas company Public Gas Corporation of Greece (DEPA), Mytilineos and Prometheus Gas,” added Gazprom.

Novatek, the Russian energy company and developer of the Arctic LNG II project to double up on the existing Yamal LNG plant, said it was still on track for the first Train to come on stream by year-end 2023 and Japan and China would be key customers.