In this issue

 

Australian energy company Santos said the Gladstone coal-seam-gas-to-LNG plant it operates in the eastern state of Queensland increased production to 1.4 million tonnes for the quarter, backed by strong CSG…
Our Asia-Pacific editor Oil Search, a stakeholder in the Papua New Guinea LNG plant, said the joint venture planning its expansion will start the engineering phase by the end of…
Origin Energy, the Australian utility and stakeholder in the Australia Pacific LNG plant in Queensland, said its current head of its Integrated Gas division, David Baldwin, was stepping down to…
Tokyo Gas and Kyushu Electric Power have formed the latest Japanese strategic alliance under the government’s deregulation policy as companies aim to import LNG on the most economic terms and…
Our North American editor in New York The Administration of President Donald Trump is taking an interest in the Alaska LNG project with US Vice-President Mike Pence meeting Alaska Governor…
The US Rio Grande LNG project development company in Texas run by former Royal Dutch Shell senior executive Kathleen Eisbrenner has signed a definitive agreement to become a listed company…
Our North America editor in New York Kinder Morgan, one of the largest US pipeline companies, and Colorado-based DCP Midstream have signed a letter of intent for DCP to participate…
Our Europe editor Norwegian company Global LNG Services (GLS), a developer of floating liquefaction hulls, said it planned to work with Siemens of Germany and Sembcorp Marine of Singapore on…
Gaztransport and Technigaz (GTT), the French maritime storage tank specialist, said first-quarter revenues fell almost 3 percent to 56.8 million euros ($62.4M) as new orders were gained for four floating…
Skangas, the Norwegian liquefied natural gas supplier and facility operator, has named Kimmo Rahkamo as its new chief executive in succession to Tor Morten Osmundsen. 
Our Asia-Pacific editor Japanese liquefied natural gas imports stayed in the high end at more than 8 million tonnes for March, in line with the volumes purchased in the same…
One of the largest pension funds in Canada has agreed to acquire more than a third of the shares in the main LNG import terminal in South America, the GNL…
Our Europe editor Sonatrach, Algeria’s state energy company, and France’s Total have signed a comprehensive agreement and announced “the amicable settlement of outstanding differences” between the two companies as the…
JX Nippon and Hokkaido Gas are latest companies to take advantage ofthe deregulation process Our Asia-Pacific editor The Japanese city-gas retail market, involving some of the largest LNG importers such…

News Nudges

Petrobangla declines Liberia-flagged cargo

Bangladesh’s state energy company Petrobangla has declined to unload the LNG supplied by Saudi Aramco after the carrier Alhamra, built in 1997, failed to satisfy the technical and safety standards required for unloading at the country’s floating LNG terminal at Moheshkhali. The Liberia-flagged Alhamra is carrying about 61,000 tonnes of LNG.


Nine killed at Bangladesh LNG carrier break-up

Nine workers were killed and several others injured after hydrogen sulfide gas accumulated in a ballast tank of the former 138,000-m³ LNG carrier HL Ras Laffan (now Rasi, IMO 9176008) during dismantling at the Ferdous Steel yard in Sitakunda, Bangladesh. The Department of Explosives said the H₂S built up in a ballast area, not an LNG cargo tank, and measured 10.8 ppm about four hours after the incident on August 15, with officials suspecting concentrations may have exceeded 100 ppm at the time of exposure. The Ferdous Steel was ordered to suspend operations pending a safety audit.