LNG

Pemex adds to gas projects

Mexican state energy company Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex) is seeking a 2020 budget of 523,425 billion pesos ($27 billion), an almost 9 percent increase from the amount approved by the government for 2019. Pemex is focusing on brings natural gas fields on stream to reduce the medium-term financial burden of LNG and pipeline natural gas imports and about half of the 2020 budget will go on exploration and production. The onshore Ixachi natural gas and condensate project in Veracruz state is one of the fields being targeted as the nation’s third-largest upstream project. Pemex plans to drill 47 wells at Ixachi, where natural gas output is expected to reach more than 635 million cubic feet per day. Ixachi is one of 20 fields with accelerating development plans as Pemex seeks to reverse more than 10 years of declining oil and natural gas output.

OLT Offshore on track

OLT Offshore LNG Toscana’s terminal offshore the west coast of Italy will work at 100 percent of its capacity with 41 slots being used for the Gas Year 2019-2020 with the total allocated capacity amounting to 6.3 million cubic metres. “This confirms the effectiveness of the new allocation capacity mechanism via auctions introduced in 2018, which makes the regasification sector more flexible and in line with market demands, both for the spot market and the long-term and medium-term ones,” said OLT Offshore. The “FSRU Toscana” offshore the port of Livorno will also be increasing the small-scale services available once modifications are completed. Small-scale commercial activities are expected to begin in 2021, allowing slots for small carriers to deliver LNG into storage under construction at regional ports for services such as the provision of trucking fuel and bunkering.

GTT storage tank orders

French LNG storage tanks technology company Gaztransport & Technigaz (GTT) said it received two separate orders from the South Korean shipyard Hyundai Heavy Industries on behalf of two Greek shipping lines, Tsakos Energy Navigation and Capital Gas Carriers. Both vessels will have storage capacity of 174,000 cubic metres. “GTT will design the tanks of the vessels, which will be fitted with the Mark III Flex membrane containment system,” said the Paris-based company. “The delivery of the ships is planned during the fourth quarter of 2021,” added GT.