LNG

German Chancellor and leader of European Union socialists Olaf Scholz talked down fossil fuels in a major speech and stated  that renewable energy like wind and solar are the future and could be the saviours of German industry and the beleaguered economy.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and the head of Gazprom have held talks in Vladivostok with Mongolian Prime Minister Luvsannamsrai Oyun-Erdene at the Russian-organized Eastern Economic Forum amid efforts by Russia to push forward with a natural gas pipeline to China across Mongolia, which is sandwiched in Central Asia between both big powers.

The Russian government said the Asia-Pacific region would likely largely replace Europe as a recipient of natural gas and petroleum in the wake of Western sanctions over Ukraine while European spot natural gas prices failed to move significantly higher in the wake of expected events.

July 1 (LNGJ) - Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree to set up a new operating company for the Sakhalin II oil and liquefied natural gas projects on Sakhalin Island in Russia’s Far East. While Shell has abandoned its stake in Sakhalin II LNG since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, two Japanese companies Mitsui and Mitsubishi Corp. remain shareholders and it was unclear what their new status would be. Japan still receives LNG shipments from the Gazprom-operated Sakhalin II plant.

US major ExxonMobil with LNG production stakes in nations like Qatar, Australia, Papua New Guinea and at Golden Pass in Texas has become the latest energy company to quit Russia over the Ukrainian invasion and is expected to take a hit on earnings of up to $4 billion by leaving behind mainly oil interests in the Russian Far East.

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.

The next Chancellor of Germany, the Social Democrat (SPD) leader Olaf Scholz, has presented his cabinet ministers for the new government to be sworn in on December 8 and officials confirmed the continued suspension of the Russian Nord Steam II pipeline to Germany, keeping European Union natural gas prices high this winter and beyond.

Gazprom and RusGazDobycha, a special purposes company securing gas supplies for Russia’s chemicals industry and which is a partner in the Ust-Luga LNG production plant proposed for west of St Petersburg on the Baltic Coast, have reached a final investment decision on the massive Semakovskoye gas field in Western Siberia.

Toyo Engineering Corp. of Japan has been awarded two engineering and construction contracts in Thailand and Russia as it redirects its core business to petrochemicals after being involved in the global build-out of LNG liquefaction plants and import terminals, including the Sakhalin export facility in the Russian Far East and the largest Indian import terminal at Dahej near Mumbai.

The Russian port and enclave of Kaliningrad is now self-sufficient in LNG after a delivery via the floating storage and regasification unit, the “Marshal Vasilevskiy”, to the small area separated from Russia and bordering Lithuania and Poland.