LNG

July 27 - ANZ Bank expects LNG usage in Asia will increase by 40% in the next decade on rising demand for cleaner energy. This would allow Australia's LNG exports to triple to an annual value of more than A$50 billion ($36 billion), making the fuel the country's biggest export earner, overtaking current number one iron ore and second-ranked coal, the bank said in a report.

The Energy Policy Modernization Act of 2015, a bipartisan bill put forward by Alaska's Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski with the help of Washington's Democratic Senator Maria Cantwell, calls for a decision to be made on LNG exports to non-FTA countries within 45 days after completion of environmental review.

Bill 30, a cornerstone for LNG projects, has now received royal assent after being enacted by the B.C. government on Tuesday, paving the way for $36 billion NorthWest LNG to become the first LNG project in western Canada. The bill protects LNG project developers from tax increases over 25 years.

Flexibility of LNG makes it "ideally suited" as a source of primary power generation in emerging markets, particularly for decentralised power projects that are far from other major gas supply routes, Jérôme Ferrier president of the International Gas Union (IGU) told LNG Journal.

With first US LNG exports set to come to market at the turn of this year, traditional contractual relations between gas buyers and sellers are changing. "Henry Hub will play an important role an increasingly we'll see a lot of hybrid pricing, e.g. HH and oil or NBP and oil," forecast Mike Reimers, manager North American Gas/LNG at Poten & Partners.

Australia-based LNG Ltd announced a liquefaction tolling agreement (LTA) has been signed with Meridian LNG Holdings for firm capacity rights for up to 2 mtpa at its Magnolia LNG terminal, located on the Calcasieu shipping channel in Lake Charles District, Louisiana.

July 24 - Russia's Sakhalin-2 liquefaction and export plant has come back to full operation after a month of maintenance. Production at the 10 mtpa project fell during the maintenance period, while shipments of LNG continued "according to plan", said Sakhalin Energy, a JV between Gazprom (50%), Shell (27/5%), Mitsui (12.5%) and Diamond Gas (10%).

Plans to import LNG on the Croatian island of Krk go back a decade and in a push to advance the project, the gas TSO Plinacro together with power producer HEP have invited investors to express bidding interest in a tender to develop the €600 million regasification terminal.

July 23 - Korea Gas Corporation (KOGAS) has teamed up with the country's three major shipbuilders - Hyundai Heavy Industries, Samsung Heavy Industries, and Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering - to form a specialized company to design LNG carrier tanks. Up to now, the three shipbuilders had to pay royalties of $8.66 million per vessel to GTT, since they don't yet have proprietary tank design technology.

A contract to convert a Moss-type LNG carrier, the Gandria, into a Golar floating liquefaction (GoFLNG) facility has been awarded to Keppel Shipyard in Singapore. Works will be done on behalf of Golar Gandria at a cost of $684 million; and Keppel stated the converted FLNG vessel will be delivered in 31 month after receipt of the notice to proceed.