LNG

TotalEnergies and INEOS, the British multinational chemicals group and future importer of US LNG volumes, have signed agreements to realign their respective stakes in their production assets and logistics infrastructure to better reflect the balance between their production and use of ethylene in eastern France.

TotalEnergies said this exchange of interests supported the integration between its petrochemical sites at Feyzin, near Lyon, and Carling in eastern France, while INEOS strengthens its operations at the Lavéra site on the Mediterranean coast near Marseilles.

“The companies’ sites that produce and use ethylene in eastern France are connected by a pipelines and storage network that begins at Lavéra in southeast France and passes through Feyzin to Carling in the northeast,” TotelEnergies explained.

However, TotalEnergies does not itself use its share of production from the Lavéra steam cracker, which is equally (50-50) owned with INEOS and sells it mainly to INEOS.

Stake sale

In order to realign the companies’ production and internal use of ethylene, TotalEnergies will sell its stake in the Lavéra assets to INEOS, in addition to part of its interests in the Eastern France ethylene pipeline and storage network, which TotalEnergies will continue to operate.

While TotalEnergies is a world leader in LNG, INEOS has been building up its LNG interests as imported gas is needed for its chemicals processing.

INEOS recently signed an agreement with the Japanese shipping company Mitsui OSK Lines for two newbuild LNG carriers to be used for the importation of LNG into Germany from the United States.

These agreements are a significant shipping move by INEOS following the long-term Sales and Purchase Agreement signed with US utility Sempra for 1.4 million tonnes per annum of cargoes from the planned Port Arthur LNG export project in Texas.

The UK company has purchased the volumes to ship to its long-term regasification capacity holding at Brunsbüttel, the proposed onshore German LNG import terminal being developed on the Elbe River north of Hamburg.

In the TotalEnergies-INEOS deal TotalEnergies has also reaffirmed the key role of the Feyzin petrochemical platform in France.

Petrochemical platform

“Within TotalEnergies, the company is thus consolidating the key role of the Feyzin petrochemical platform as the integrated supplier of ethylene to the Carling platform,” said the Paris-based company.

The French company added that the agreement with INEOS would have no operational impact on TotalEnergies’ refining and petrochemical sites.

“This operation allows us to strengthen the links between our Feyzin and Carling petrochemical sites, with Feyzin becoming Carling’s integrated ethylene supplier, in line with our strategy to focus on our integrated platforms,” said Jean-Marc Durand, Senior Vice President, TotalEnergies Refining Base Chemicals Europe.

The companies added that the implementation of this project is subject to the prior consultation process of employee representatives and approvals from the relevant authorities.

INEOS, the UK-based European chemicals company with increasing LNG interests, is entering the US oil and gas production sector for the first time with the acquisition of a portion of Chesapeake Energy’s assets in the Eagle Ford shale basin in south Texas for $1.4 billion.

Feb 2 (LNGJ) - UK major BP reported a full-year loss of $20.3 billion, including significant impairments and exploration write-offs taken in the second quarter, compared with a profit of $4.0 billion in 2019. BP’s 2021 outlook expects the US natural gas market to tighten as supply declines and demand for LNG exports recovers. “The current tightness on global LNG markets and higher US gas prices will lift other regional gas prices,” said BP.

   A BP profit was posted in the fourth quarter of $1.4Bln versus a $500 million loss in the previous quarter thanks to a quarterly $2.3Bln one-time gain from the sale of BP’s petrochemicals business to INEOS of the UK. “At year-end net debt was $39Bln, down $1.4Bln over the quarter and $6.5Bln over the full year. Net debt is expected to increase in the first half of 2021, driven by severance payments, the annual Gulf of Mexico oil spill payment and payment following completion of the offshore wind joint venture with Equinor,” said BP.

UK major BP has sold a 20 percent stake for $2.6 ‎billion to Thailand’s national energy company in key tight natural gas fields onshore the Sultanate of Oman that enabled the Arabian Peninsula nation to stabilize then boost LNG exports over the past three years.

UK major BP has agreed a $5 billion deal to sell its global petrochemicals business to Ineos, a European chemicals and refinery company and an importer of ethane made from US shale gas.

Delek Group of Israel, the company with stakes in the huge Leviathan field in the Eastern Mediterranean set to come on stream to supply Egypt and regional buyers and with LNG output plans, said its Ithaca Energy subsidiary completed the purchase of the UK North Sea oil and natural gas assets from Chevron Corp. for around $2 billion.

Delek Group of Israel, the company with stakes in the giant Leviathan field in the Eastern Mediterranean set to come on stream in 2020, said it was one of the bidders for UK North Sea oil and natural gas assets being sold by Chevron Corp. of the US.

French energy major Total said it made a large natural gas discovery on its Glendronach prospect offshore the UK, West of Shetland, amid recent reductions in LNG imports to the country’s three main terminals.

Ineos, the European petrochemicals company with shale-gas and refinery assets in the UK, said it signed a long-term supply agreement with SP Chemicals of China for the supply of ethane made from US shale gas.

The decision to ban shale-gas extraction in Scotland means the loss of a potential jobs renaissance and that the country will have to continue importing cargoes of ethane from US shale gas and may eventually need more conventional LNG cargoes than are currently planned for domestic and industrial use.