LNG

Zululand Energy Terminal (ZET) has launched an expression of interest process for engineering, procurement and construction contractors for its planned $1 billion LNG import terminal at Richards Bay in South Africa, according to the project’s website. The first phase will include about 3 mtpa of regasification capacity, with later expansion plans to add more storage and capacity. The project is being developed by Vopak Terminal Durban and Transnet Pipelines.

Dutch terminal operator Vopak has delayed its final investment decision (FID) on South Africa’s first LNG import facility until the first quarter of 2028. The decision follows a court order, halting state utility Eskom’s plans for a 3,000 MW LNG-fuelled power plant at Richards Bay.

Vopak has signed an accord with shipping firm Seapeak to provide a floating storage regasification unit (FSRU) for its planned LNG import terminal in Australia’s Victoria state. The FSRU is mean to receive cargoes from 2029, helping to avert supply shortages.

 Sept 19 (LNGJ) - Royal Vopak, the Dutch global storage company and LNG sector participant, has reached agreement with Infracapital on the sale of Vopak chemical terminals in Rotterdam. Vopak, whose latest LNG investment was taking a 50 percent stake in the Dutch Eemshaven terminal in Groningen with utility Gasunie, said it reached an agreement with Infracapital on the sale of its three chemical terminals in Rotterdam, the Botlek, TTR and Chemiehaven facilities for a total price of €407 million ($434M).

   Infracapital, an equity investment arm of M&G Plc of the UK, is a specialist European infrastructure investor and has a track record of owning assets in the Netherlands. The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions and is expected to close before the year-end. “Although within Vopak we will surely miss our colleagues at the chemical terminals in Rotterdam, we are convinced that our customers and colleagues will be well served by partnering with Infracapital who is a long-term and an experienced infrastructure investor,” said Patrick van der Voort, Vopak’s Business Unit President.

Belgian shipping company Exmar, which chartered a regasification barge to the Netherlands and sold a floating LNG production vessel to Italy’s Eni for deployment in Africa, said the takeover process had begun involving Saverex NV, the holding company of the family of Exmar Executive Chairman Nicolas Saverys.

June 8 (LNGJ) - Royal Vopak, the Netherlands-based global storage company with stakes in liquefied natural gas terminals and a new LNG import project for Hong Kong, has hosted its Capital Markets Day in Rotterdam and updated analysts on strategic priorities. “Vopak will grow its base in industrial and gas terminals by allocating €1 billion ($1.07Bln) to these activities by 2030. This will further support a long-term and steady cash flow generation. Vopak will continue to invest in the growing global gas markets and expand its network of LNG and LPG terminals at strategic locations,” said the company.

   “Vopak aims to further grow and maintain its position as market leader in industrial terminals and to improve the performance of the portfolio and targets an operating cash return of at least 10 percent by 2025. The company expects that the share of proportional capital employed in industrial and gas will further increase, while the share of oil and chemicals will gradually decline,” it added.

Tokyo Gas and JERA Co. Inc., the leading Japanese utilities and LNG importers, have sold their combined 50 percent stake in a Mexican-based company operating five gas-fired power plants, including one close to the Gulf Of Mexico LNG import terminal at Altamira.

The Mexican company MT Falcon Holdings owns five natural gas combined-cycle power plants (CCPPs) in northeast Mexico and Tokyo Gas and JERA have sold their respective 30 percent and 20 percent stakes.

Each power plant has had long-term power purchasing agreement with Mexico’s state-owned Federal Electricity Commission.

Both Tokyo Gas and JERA have entered into sale and purchase agreements with Actis GP LLP, a London-based private equity firm with investments in global energy infrastructure.

The sales are expected to be completed by the end of March 2022 and are subject to certain approvals from Mexican government authorities.

“Tokyo Gas will enhance business expansion also in the global business such as renewable energy, gas and power supply, LNG infrastructure development, and contribute to the society through corporate growth with the experience and knowledge acquired from MT Falcon,” explained the Tokyo utility, which is aiming for more Asian investments.

The five MT Falcon plants have total generating capacity of 2,233 megawatts of power.

The value of the transactions with Actis were not disclosed, though the Japanese utilities seemed pleased with their sell-offs.

The power plant near the Mexican LNG import terminal at Altamira is a facility with 495 MW of capacity.

Three of the other plants are at Rio Bravo and the fourth is at Saltillo.

JERA also indicated that it preferred its investment portfolio to show more growth in Asia than in the Americas.

“JERA will continue to renew its portfolio going forward, selling assets and reinvesting the proceeds as it optimizes its asset allocation for compatibility with a changing business environment,” said JERA.

The company is the largest Japanese LNG buyer with 35 million tonnes per annum of volumes and controls a fleet of 20 LNG carriers.

JERA is Japan’s biggest fossil-fuel generator being owned jointly by Tokyo Electric Power Co. and Chubu Electric, the two largest power companies.

The joint venture company currently operates and provides fuel for a total of 26 power plants in Japan and imports LNG into 11 of Japan’s network of 37 terminals.

The Tokyo Gas LNG portfolio currently amounts to around 14 MTPA and the utility controls a fleet of 10 ships to deliver to its four import terminals, three around Tokyo Bay and one at Hitachi in Ibaraki Prefecture.

German company TGE Gas Engineering GmbH has signed a contract with Flogas Britain Ltd, a company with several LNG firsts to its name, for the conversion of a former National Grid LNG peak-shaving facility at Avonmouth in southeast England into a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) terminal.

Pieridae Energy, the developer of the German-backed Goldboro LNG project in the Canadian Atlantic province of Nova Scotia, has had its purchase of Royal Dutch Shell’s midstream and upstream assets in the southern foothills of Alberta blocked by the provincial regulator.

LNG supplier Nauticor, a subsidiary of the Nordic energy company Gasum, has conducted the first ship-to-ship LNG bunkering operation for an LNG-powered product tanker in Germany near the proposed site of the nation’s first LNG import terminal project.