LNG

China National Oil Corporation's (CNOOC) will use Qatargas' first delivered LNG cargo to commission its new regasification terminal in Hainan province in the coming days.

Aug 18 (LNGJ) - Rising shale oil and gas production in the U.S. has pushed back Nigerian LNG exports, according to state oil firm Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).

Nigeria exported just 2.3 Tcf, or 1% of total LNG export to the U.S. in 2011, compared to about 12% (95 Tcf) in 2007, NNPC figures show.

Aug 18 (LNGJ) - James Salmon, Calvert County circuit court judge, has ruled that zoning exemptions granted by county commissioners for the Dominion Cove Point LNG terminal are invalid.

"The exemptions violate the uniformity provision in the Land Use article and constitute [...] a special law that violates the Maryland Constitution," he concluded.

Russia's gas export monopoly Gazprom has urged the Kremlin to block changes to the gas export law that would allow Rosneft to export gas from the Pechora LNG project in northern Russia, claiming the bill "will strengthen the bargaining position of potential foreign buyers of Russian gas."

A flurry of LNG regas terminals has sprung up in China, mostly used for importing spot cargoes, but analysts see a trend towards medium-term contracts as "buyers need to sign new LNG contracts for delivery in the early 2020s, if not sooner."

Spiralling costs of over $36 billion Canadian dollars (US$ 33.1bn) to develop the Pacific Northwest LNG project have pushed Malaysia's state-run Petronas to offer stakes in the mega project to four potential partners from Japan and the Middle East. The aim is to raise as much as $15 billion in what would be Canada's biggest ever debt-financing deal.

Japan's biggest city gas supplier Tokyo Gas Co. has agreed with Mitsui & Co. to purchase 520,000 tonnes of US LNG per year from the Cameron liquefaction project for a 20-year period starting from 2020.

Gearing up to develop the $2 billion bi-directional Downeast LNG facility (3 mtpa) in Robbinston, Maine, DELNG has submitted its pre-filing request to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).

Leapfrogging forward, partners in the Alaska LNG project have submitted a request to export up to 20 mtpa over a 30-year period to countries that have free trade agreements with the U.S., as well as to non-FTA countries, to the U.S. Department of Energy (DoE).

Jul 22 - By 2021, more than 14,000 manufacturing jobs could be lost in Queensland, if domestic gas prices continue to increase amid a boom in LNG exports, the Australian Industry Group warns.

The lobby group's head Innes Willox stressed the flipside of lucrative LNG exports would be potential domestic gas shortages and Queensland risks losing about $30 billion out of its manufacturing sector by 2021 unless there is some policy change.