LNG

France’s Commission de Régulation de l'Energie (CRE) has given the go-ahead for a further increase in the cost of imported natural gas, leading to an immediate jump in regulated domestic sales tariffs as costs rise for utilities all over Europe.

GRTgaz, the French natural gas grid operator and parent company of the LNG terminals operator, said the nation was well prepared with full storage to meet gas demands during the coming winter, provided minimum LNG supplies are maintained in the event of an exceptional cold spell.

OLT Offshore LNG Toscana SpA, the owner of the floating storage and regasification unit “FSRU Toscana”,  located offshore the West Coast of Italy, is auctioning a quantity of natural gas subject to various conditions.

The amount on offer is 101,400 megawatt hours under the conditions of a purchasing contract.

In addition, any bidders must have access to the Italian Virtual Exchange Point, the Punto di Scambio Virtuale (PSV), the national natural gas trading platform.

The Italian PSV is the sixth largest in Western Europe, after the Netherlands, the UK, Germany’s two trading points and the French platform, Trading Region France.

A second condition of the gas auction is that any buyer must have capacity access to the Italian natural gas transport system of Societa Nazionale Metanodotti (SNAM) Rete Gas SpA.

A final condition is that the documentation must be submitted from 9:00 am to 12:00 noon on 20 March 2020.

“Offers sent before or after this deadline will not be taken into consideration and will be automatically excluded,” said OLT Offshore.

SNAM agreed to acquire a controlling stake in the OLT Offshore LNG Toscana company in September 2019.

The vessel “FSRU Toscana” is moored 22 kilometres off the Italian coast between the cities of Livorno and Pisa.

It is connected to the Italian gas grid through a 36.5-kilometre pipeline from the shore.

SNAM acquired 49.07 percent of the share capital of OLT from Italian utility company, the Iren Group, and took joint control of the terminal with the global equity fund First State Investments.

The equity fund First State also bought German utility Uniper’s 48.24 percent stake in the facility in May 2019.

The only remaining original shareholders from the start-up of the LNG import project offshore Tuscany in 2013 is vessel owner Golar LNG with 2.69 percent.

Since operations began, the FSRU has handled LNG cargoes from 10 different countries, Algeria, Cameroon, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Nigeria, Norway, Peru, Qatar, Trinidad & Tobago and the United States.

The OLT Offshore facility  has traditionally provided national peak-shaving services to Italy with LNG cargoes.

SNAM said that is acquisition of OLT guaranteed industry expertise in the management of  a vital piece of infrastructure for the Italian energy system’s security and flexibility.

GRTgaz, the French natural gas network operator and owner of LNG import terminals, said there had been a “massive” return of the fuel to Europe and France in the past year as it revealed plans to move LNG by rail to increase availability in Eastern France.

European natural gas trading in the day-ahead and month-ahead over-the-counter markets in London covering the eight major gas hubs in Europe soared more than 25 percent as prices plunged, according to the latest year-to-date figures.

GRTgaz, the French natural gas network operator and whose subsidiary manages three LNG import terminals, said no supply problems were foreseen this winter season and added that send-outs of LNG into the system had doubled over the past year.

Engie, the French power and energy company with LNG and gas network businesses and an international portfolio, posted a 20 percent drop in cash flow from operations, a good measure of profitability, to 4 billion euros ($4.4Bln) in the nine months to September from 5Bln euros ($5.5Bln) in the same period of 2018.

European natural gas trading in the day-ahead and month-ahead over-the-counter markets in London soared more than 14 percent in August and were up more than 32 percent in the year to date compared with last year.

The French Atlantic Coast Montoir-de-Bretagne LNG import terminal said its call for capacity subscriptions currently ongoing will enter its final binding phase in October 2019.

European natural gas trading in the day-ahead and month-ahead over-the-counter markets in London soared almost 27 percent in June but at much lower prices compared with the same month in 2018.