LNG

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.

Chiyoda Corp., the leading Japanese energy and LNG engineering company, has been awarded a technical service agreement (TSA) by the Indonesian Donggi-Senoro LNG project, the all-Asian venture whose largest shareholder is Japan’s Mitsubishi Corp.

“The agreement covers engineering, technology, and process safety support for the LNG plant and is scheduled to be carried out for three years,” said Chiyoda.

The LNG plant produces around 2 million tonnes per annum of LNG and has long-term contracts with Japanese and South Korean buyers.

Chiyoda said its Operations & Maintenance (O&M) division established at the start of 2023 would take the lead in providing the services.

The contract will also make use of Chiyoda’s consulting and engineering capabilities as a part of the plant-OSTM Services.

Service-focused

Chiyoda noted that this service was set up in September 2023 to offer field-centred physical maintenance support for industrial plants with “inherent digital technologies affording to the customer deep insight” into the plant status.

Production at Donggi-Senoro LNG commenced in August 2015 and the plant has been operating at a high rate since its start-up.

The facilities liquefy and export feed gas from the Senoro-Toili block and the Matindok block onshore gas fields in Indonesia’s Central Sulawesi province.

Mitsubishi owns around 45 percent of the Donggi-Senoro joint venture and the other partners are Korea Gas Corp., the Indonesian state-owned oil and gas company Pertamina and Indonesia’s largest publicly-listed energy company Medco.

When Donggi-Senoro started it was the first LNG project exclusively owned and operated by Asian companies without the participation of international oil majors.

However, Mitsubishi is now one of Japan’s leading LNG stakeholders with assets and supplies from North America, including LNG Canada, Malaysia, Brunei, Australia and Russia.

The Donggi-Senoro customers are Japanese utility giant JERA Co. Inc., which takes delivery of 1 MTPA, Kogas with 700,000 tonnes per annum and Japan’s Kyushu Electric Power contracted for 300,000 tonnes per annum.

UK major Shell plc posted the company’s highest ever annual profits helped by record natural gas prices as its LNG sales volumes also increased during the quarter and for the full year.

Japanese insurance companies will raise premiums for liquefied natural gas carriers operating in Russian territorial waters by about 80 percent starting on January 25 after previously threatening to withdraw the cover from shipping lines.

Nov 23 (LNGJ) - Japan and China remain the biggest buyers of LNG from Russia, whose two export plants are Sakhalin in the Russian Far East and the Yamal plant in Northern Siberia. Shipping data showed that between January and October 2022 Japan bought around 5.96 million tonnes of LNG from Russia, a fall of 10 percent from 2021, while China purchased 5.67MT, an increase of 24 percent from 2021.

   After Japan and China, the other main buyers of Russian LNG cargoes through October 2022 have been France (4.75MT), Spain (3.24MT), Belgium (1.78MT) and the Netherlands (1.67MT). Only the UK has declined to purchase Russian LNG since March 2022 when the last cargo was discharged.

May 25 (LNGJ) - Shell, which has pledged to withdraw from Russian hydrocarbons from crude oil to the LNG plant on Sakhalin Island in a phased manner, has completed the sale for an undisclosed sum of its subsidiary Shell Neft’s retail filling stations and lubricants business in Russia to Lukoil. Shell Neft’s retail network consists of more than 400 stations, 240 sites owned by Shell and 171 other sites owned by dealerships.

   “All people currently working for Shell Neft, more than 350 in total, will remain employed by Shell Neft, which is now owned by Lukoil,” said the company. Shell noted that Lukoil is one of the largest publicly traded oil and gas companies in the world in terms of proved reserves and production and is the second-largest producer of oil in Russia.

Gazprom, the Russian natural gas company supplying pipeline gas to Europe and China in competition to LNG, posted much higher first-half profits as volume sales of gas increased by 18 percent with the start of the partial global economic recovery.

July 26 (LNGJ) - Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said the Government and the Sakhalin Region of the Russian Far East were examining plans to supply liquified natural gas to the Kuril Islands. There is still a dispute between Russia and Japan over the status of the Kuril Islands, located between the Japanese island of Hokkaido at the southern end and the Russian Kamchatka Peninsula in the north. The volcanic archipelago comprises 56 islands taken over by the Soviet Union at the end of World War II and have since been considered as part of Russia.

   Mishustin said that Russia was considering supplying regasification and some power infrastructure to the Kurils to run on small-scale LNG shipments from Gazprom’s Sakhalin Energy LNG plant, which also supplies Japanese utilities. “LNG is probably the best option given the current global green energy requirements. This would be an excellent solution,” said the Russian PM in a statement.

Gazprom said the Svobodny thermal power plant has started up to serve the Amur Gas Processing Plant, one of the world’s largest and part of the “Power of Siberia” project comprising pipeline gas for China and LNG for trucks transporting liquid helium as a new Russian Far East export.

Sovcomflot, the Russian shipping line with 17 liquefied natural gas carriers with others on order and with an overall fleet of 146 vessels, posted increased first-quarter revenues and profits on higher freight rates.