LNG

Morocco is moving ahead with plans for a floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) and several more FSRUs in the future as part of an expansion in natural gas imports amid hopes of more production of gas from discoveries onshore and offshore the North African kingdom.

Enagás, the Spanish natural gas operator of six large LNG terminals and with gas assets in other European countries and overseas, reported an increase in first-quarter 2024 earnings even as gas demand in Spain declined because of warmer weather.

Enagás, the Spanish natural gas operator of six large LNG terminals and with gas assets in other European countries and overseas, reported a fall in net profits as Spanish gas and power demand dropped, offset by a one-time gain from the sale of a stake in a gas pipeline in Mexico.

HAM Group of Spain, the developer of a growing European LNG filling station network and with other stations opened in South America, has inaugurated another facility on the Andalusia regional highway.

Enagás, the Spanish gas grid and terminals operator, said the El Musel liquefied natural gas re-loading facility in Northwest Spain designated to supply the European Union has awarded the services contracts to utility Endesa after a tender process.

Endesa is the largest Spanish electric utility while being a majority-owned subsidiary of the Italian utility group Enel.

Enagás said the award to Endesa of logistics services for the El Musel terminal at the Port of Gijón on the Bay of Biscay followed a capacity allocation process.

“The open season had aroused strong interest among trading companies. In total, 13 were received between June 5 and 30, the period during which this last part of the process was developed,” explained Enagás.

“The logistics services offered for this infrastructure are LNG unloading, storage and loading operations,” Enagás said.

Regulated régime

“Within the regulated access regime, the El Musel plant contemplates a minimum regasification for the exact management of the terminal, as well as the tanker-loading service,” it added.

Enagás has re-activated the existing El Musel terminal to meet growing LNG needs in the EU after the closure of Russian pipeline gas supplies and a US commissioning cargo was delivered recently by the 174,000 cubic metres capacity carrier “Cool Racer”.

The Spanish terminal will contribute up to 8 billion cubic metres of additional LNG to Europe’s supply when commercial operations start.

El Musel will specialise in the unloading of LNG carriers from various producing countries and the rapid re-loading of ships for different European destinations.

The terminal berthing can accommodate the largest vessels and it has two storage tanks each with capacity of 150,000 cubic metres.

The re-opening of El Musel is part of the Spanish Government’s “More Energy Security Plan” and will add to Spain’s role as an energy hub for Europe as the nation also receives pipeline gas imports from Algeria.

Enagás operates six other LNG regasification terminals on mainland Spain.

Royal Dutch Shell has confirmed its leadership in liquefied natural gas supply for LNG-powered ships by chartering another bunkering vessel under construction in Spain.

Naturgy Energy Group, the Spanish utility with major US and Russian liquefied natural gas supply contracts as well as gas and power businesses in six Latin American countries, returned to a net profit in the first half of 2019 from a heavy loss in the year-ago period.

Naturgy posted a first-half net profit of 592 euros ($660M) compared with a loss of 3.28 billion euros reported in the same six months of 2018.

The utility had approved a new strategic plan in 2018 through to 2022 as well as a company overhaul. This meant that assets were impaired to the amount of 4.85Bln euros due to the re-measurement of the estimated future cash flows.

Naturgy is one of the companies that have signed 20-year agreements for US cargoes from Cheniere Energy’s Sabine Pass and Corpus Christi plants and is also a main contract holder for cargoes from the Yamal LNG plant in Arctic Russia operated by natural gas company Novatek.

The US and Russian volumes were booked under Naturgy's previous name, Gas Natural Fenosa.

The utility’s international LNG earnings in the first half dropped by 32.2 percent to 158M euros from 233M euros in the 2018 first-half.

European power generation earnings fell by 27.7 percent to 120M euros from 166M euros a year ago.

“In Gas & Power, the first half results have been driven by a notable improvement in services sales, which has experienced a strong margin recovery in power supply, more than offsetting a more challenging scenario in International LNG and Europe Power generation,” said Naturgy.

“The company’s new commercial policies and de-risking efforts, together with efficiencies, have also helped offset the global decline in gas prices during the period,” it added.

“The company has continued to work on improving the risk profile of its merchant activities. As such, in International LNG, for example, Naturgy has already secured approximately 90 percent of its LNG volumes for the year while in Power supply, it has continued to reduce its portfolio of fixed price sales contracts,” the company explained.

Overall gross earnings in the Gas & Power division rose 7.6 percent to 640M euros from 595M euros in the same six months of last year.

Natural gas sales in Spain declined by 8.3 percent in the first half to 116,131 gigawatt hours compared with 126,587 GWh in the first half of 2018.

“This was mainly as a result of lower sales in the Spanish residential and industrial segments (down 11.8 percent and down 14.4 percent respectively), partially compensated by higher sales to combined-cycle gas-fired power plants (up 14.0 percent) and third parties (+17.7 percent),” said Naturgy.

In its other divisions European, Middle East and Africa Infrastructure earned 919M euros, up 3.1 percent.

The Latin America South Infrastructure earnings rose 23.8 percent to 448M euros, while Latin America North Infrastructure, comprising Mexico gas and Panama electricity, came in at 189M euros, up 53.7 percent.

Latin America South includes, Chile electricity, Chile gas, Brazil gas, Argentina gas and electricity and Peru gas.

Therefore, Naturgy posted a 7.5 percent rise in first-half gross earnings of 2.15Bln euros versus 2.00Bln in the same period of 2018.

Naturgy’s net sales dropped 4.4 percent to 11.63Bln euros from 12.17Bln in the first half of last year.

The company’s diverse LNG supply portfolio also includes shipments from Algeria, Qatar and Nigeria. The company additionally owns a small fleet of LNG vessels.

Enagas, the Spanish gas network owner and LNG terminal operator, posted a more than 7 percent drop in first-quarter revenues as it reported progress on the Trans Adriatic Pipeline connecting Turkey with Italy via Greece and Albania and reflected on a US acquisition.

Enagas, the Spanish natural gas network owner and LNG terminals operator, reported firm profits and the 85 percent completion of Trans Adriatic Pipeline, part of Europe’s Southern Gas Corridor.