Turkish President Erdogan holds talks with Russia’s Putin on energy and other issues including gas hub
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has held bilateral talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin covering a proposed natural gas hub and other energy projects for both countries flowing through Turkey.
Equinor sends more gas to Europe during quarter and sees more security at Norway's gas fields and facilities
Leading European pipeline natural gas and LNG supplier Equinor of Norway said record high production levels continued in the third quarter as Europe received 11 percent more gas from the Norwegian Continental Shelf and profits rose from trading gas and power at higher prices.
US Department of Energy issues LNG export permits for Golden Pass LNG and Glenfarne’s Magnolia plant
The US Department of Energy (DoE) has issued two long-term orders authorizing additional liquefied natural gas exports from two projects of the US Gulf Coast, the QatarEnergy-backed Golden Pass LNG plant in Texas and the Magnolia LNG venture in Louisiana owned by the Glenfarne Group.
Golden Pass, an existing import terminal currently being transformed into an export facility, is a joint venture between QatarEnergy and ExxonMobil Corp. and the first liquefaction Train is scheduled to come on stream by 2024.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission formally approved the transformation of Golden Pass, located on the Sabine-Neches Waterway in Texas, back in December 2016.
However, the Qatar-ExxonMobil project has advanced at a slow pace because of doubts several years ago over market demand issues that have now been resolved and work has gathered pace to construct three liquefaction Trains with around 16 million tonnes per annum of output.
US regulators had previously approved construction of the Magnolia LNG plant proposed for a 115-acre site near the Calcasieu Ship Channel with 8.8 MTPA of output from four Trains.
Investment buyer
The Magnolia development had previously been owned by an Australian-listed company LNG Ltd that ceased trading amid financial difficulties.
Glenfarne, a New York-based fund specialising in energy infrastructure investment, then took over the project.
The DoE orders have authorized additional 0.5 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) of natural gas flows to the plants. “The orders allow Golden Pass LNG to export the equivalent of an additional 0.35 Bcf/d and Magnolia LNG to export an additional 0.15 Bcf/d of natural gas as LNG to any country not prohibited by US law or policy,” said the statement.
The DoE had previously issued long-term non-free trade agreement export orders for the majority of the projects’ capacities, with Magnolia LNG’s authorization for 1.08 billion cubic feet per day in 2016 and an authorization for 2.21 billion cubic feet per day issued to Golden Pass LNG in 2017.
The statement explained that the two orders align the respective export authorizations to additional capacity that the FERC had approved for the projects based on optimized project designs.
“The United States is the largest global producer of oil and natural gas and a net exporter of energy. US fuel supplies, including LNG, continue to play a key role in global energy security, particularly due to Putin’s invasion of Ukraine,” said the DoE.
It noted that US LNG exports had recently reached new highs of about 12 billion cubic feet per day and are expected to grow to more than 13 Bcf per day by the end of this year as additional export capacity comes online from seven large-scale plants now operating.
LNG prices stay high over lack of confidence in Russia gas replacement plan amid EU gas and power grab
Asian liquefied natural gas spot prices and European LNG cargo values remained at high levels as the European Union moved towards more regulation of natural gas and power markets and amid the likely failure of US and EU attempts to fully replace Russian pipeline gas supplies from other sources.
Taiwan LNG import needs grow though island set to receive final Russian cargo from Sakhalin as deal ends
Taiwan is set to wind down its liquefied natural gas imports from Russia as its supply contract with the Sakhalin II export facility in the Russian Far East is set to terminate at the end of March 2022, while other nations are ending their Russian LNG ties through sanctions over the Ukraine war.
Russian move on Ukraine sends European natural gas prices up 20 percent and Brent over $100 a barrel
North Sea Brent crude oil prices rose to their highest level in seven-and-a-half years as European natural gas and LNG cargo prices gained 20 percent after Russia said it was taking military action in neighbouring majority ethnic-Russian areas of Ukraine.
