The South Korean companies will also work with Ola to make new mobility solutions using e-cars. The three companies, Hyundai, Kia, and Old will be collaborating to develop India particularly EVs and the required infrastructure. Chairman of Hyundai Motor Group says “India is the centerpiece of Hyundai Motor Group’s strategy to gain leadership in the global mobility market and our partnership with Ola will certainly accelerate our efforts to transform into a Smart Mobility Solutions Provider,” said Euisun Chung, Executive Vice Chairman of Hyundai Motor Group. “Hyundai will proactively respond to market changes and persistently innovate to deliver greater value to our customers,” he added.

“This partnership will also significantly benefit driver-partners on our platform, as we collaborate with Hyundai to build vehicles and solutions that enable sustainable earnings for millions of them, in the time to come.”.

Source: ElectricVehicles.in 

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The automotive industry executives said that it seems not to slow down in the future. India’s import numbers are much high to more than ten times from China than the export. The increasing of imports of auto components from China will risk the local auto component manufacturing ecosystem which leads to a large trade deficit with China in a couple of years. The exports from China includes mainly the electronic components of vehicles which are used for the manufacturing of EVs.

Source: electricVehicles.in

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Adoption of electric vehicles not only controls the air and sound pollution but also it saves the money that you waste to buy expensive, high priced fuels-petrol or diesel. In India, there are two e-rickshaw vehicle types or categories like passenger carrier and a load carrier of these, the passenger carrier-dominated the market in 2018 by over 95.0% revenue share and is expected to have the same hold in the future too. The reason behind the domination could be the needs for public transportation, low-cost shared mobility demand and we should not forget about the rising population in the country. The e-rickshaws with 1,000–1,500 W motor power holds the largest share in the market as it gives the benefits in terms of operational low costs. And also the 1000W and 1800W  motors are used in the E Rickshaws and E-carts.  Previously the battery capacity 101 Ah led e-rickshaws were in the market but now currently the SLA battery type is most preferred one as these batteries are cheaper than the Li-ion. Manufacturers are looking out for the use of Li-ion batteries as SLA batteries are harmful when they are not disposed of properly. Currently, e-rickshaws using lead-acids batteries and some manufacturers also using Li-ion batteries which are said to be the best quality battery used in an electric vehicle. The e-rickshaws market is dominated by the small, unorganized and the major players include Terra Motors Corporation, Lohia Auto Industries, Hero Electric Vehicles Pvt. Ltd., Saera Electric Auto Pvt. Ltd., and Clean Motion India.

Source: evehicles.in

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As per FAME India, as of 16th March 2019, the number of vehicles sold were 266999.

Tata Motors is one of the most popular and leading companies for the adoption of electric vehicles in India. Tata Tigor EV, Tata Tigor EV-XM, Tata Tigor EV- XE, Tata Tigor EV-XT are the Tata Motor’s Four Wheeler electric vehicles. Tata Motors’s contributions towards EVs:

Tata Motors Supplied 40 Electric Buses To Lucknow City. Tender To supply 255 Electric Buses to 6 public transport undertakings. 2,700 Fast Charging Stations Installation In India By Tata. Supply of 10,000 electric cars to EESL (Energy Efficiency Services Ltd). Supply Of 80 electric buses to West Bengal Transport Corporation

Supply of 40 units of the Ultra 9m AC electric buses to Atal Indore City Transport Service Limited

Source: electricVehicles.in

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India has raised the price of its locally produced gas by about 10 percent to $3.69 per MMBtu for the April-September period, compared with the previous six months, a source aware of the development said. India has also set the ceiling price for gas to be produced from difficult fields at $9.32 per MMBtu for April-September, up about 21.5 percent from $7.67 per MMBtu in the previous six months, the source told Reuters on Friday. The government will formally announce the revised prices later in the day, the source said. The prices will be applicable on gross heat value basis. The increase in natural gas prices means higher prices for gas for fertilizers, automobiles and households.

Source: ET Energyworld

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The increase will mean a spike in prices of piped cooking gas (LPG) and compressed natural gas (CNG) used as transportation fuel. According to analysts, the next revision will push up the price by a maximum of 18% from the current rate of $3.36 a unit. The domestically produced gas price is revised bi-annually based on a formula approved by the government. Crisil Research feels that the next revision (for April-September) is expected to push up domestic gas price by 7-9% to $3.62-3.67 perMMBtu. Comparably, Crisil Research estimates spot Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) prices to be in the range of $6.5-7 per mBtu)in the first half of 2019-20. “This increase is expected to be fully passed on to end-consumers, making CNG and household PNG dearer. CNG prices are expected to increase by Rs. 1.5- Rs. 2 per kg in Mumbai and Rs. 1.7-2.2 per kg in Gujarat amounting to a 3-4 per cent increase over current prices. In the household PNG segment, an increase of 2-2.5 per cent is expected,” CRISIL Research said. While Crisil is still conservative in its estimates, CARE Ratings is a projecting steeper hike. “We believe the prices of domestic natural gas for the April-September 2019 period will increase from the current $3.36 a MMBtu to approximately $3.97 a MMBtu, resulting in an 18% increase,” Care Ratings said. According to Care Ratings, the rise in natural gas price will increase the manufacturing cost of urea and petrochemicals where natural gas is used as a feedstock.

https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/todays-paper/tp-news/article26575232.ece

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Refinitiv data showed. Offers were plenty with Russia’s Sakhalin 2 and Angola LNG plants offering cargoes for April to May, traders said. Australia’s new Ichthys project sold at least one cargo for April while Indonesia’s Pertamina offered a spot cargo for May and 11 cargoes for May to December, they added. Shell’s Prelude floating LNG platform that recently shipped out its first condensate cargo is also expected to ship out LNG soon, though the specific timeline was not clear, traders said. Buying interest from North Asia was scarce except for one recent purchase from South Korea’s POSCO for a May cargo at about $4.40 per MMBtu, two trade sources said. Gas inventories in Asia are high and buyers are shunning cargoes and re-directing them to Europe, sources said earlier this week. Several Chinese companies were reselling cargoes they did not need due to high inventory, two traders said. The Japan Korea Marker, the benchmark for Asian spot LNG cargoes, has fallen below the Title Transfer Facility (TTF) price in the Netherlands, a European benchmark, in an unusual move that is driving cargoes west, traders said. Gail India sold a U.S. cargo bound for Asia to northwest Europe, as part of optimisation and to take advantage of the price spread, sources said. However, the low prices are attracting interest from buyers in India, trade sources said. India’s Reliance and Gail (India) were both seeking cargoes for May while Indian Oil Corp and Petronet were also seeking cargoes, they added. Still, limited import capacity in the country could curb their purchase volumes, a trader familiar with the market said. In Western Australia, Dampier and Ashburton ports have re-opened and LNG operations are slowly being ramped up at Woodside Petroleum’s Pluto and North West Shelf LNG plants, industry sources said. The company said earlier this week it had evacuated all personnel from offshore production platforms off Western Australia ahead of Cyclone Veronica, and was operating the North West Shelf LNG and Pluto LNG plants on skeleton staff. Once the plants are back fully online, supply could further dampen prices, the sources said.

https://www.hellenicshippingnews.com/global-lng-asian-prices-fall-below-dutch-benchmark-driving-cargoes-west/

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according to traders surveyed by Bloomberg News. It might be good news for the climate, as price-sensitive users in India and Bangladesh switch to cleaner natural gas from oil and coal. Asia, the biggest consuming region for LNG, uses most of it for heating and power but a mild winter, an abundance of new supplies and a better preparedness of Chinese buyers meant prices went against the trend over the past few months by falling rather than rising. Traders are now watching for signs that summer cooling demand and buying by price-sensitive nations will spur a rally. “LNG prices could have further downside heading into the second quarter, but should find support from demand in India, South Korea, China and Thailand towards the third quarter,” said Nick Boyes, a senior gas and LNG analyst at Swiss utility and trader Axpo Group. Japan Korea Marker futures, a benchmark for spot LNG, will probably bottom at $5 per million British thermal units, according to the median of seven traders, brokers and analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. Most respondents said that level is most likely in April or May, though some said that the price may continue to fall and hit $4.50 by spring 2020. LNG prices are still dropping because more spot cargoes are entering the market and buyers in Japan, South Korea and China – the biggest users – are holding off from purchases. India, which is seen emulating China in its unprecedented use of LNG to fight air pollution, may burn more gas rather than dirtier coal if LNG prices fall to $5 per MMBtu, according to Energy Aspects Ltd. At $6, there will be little increase in India’s power sector demand given prevailing coal prices, the industry consultants said in a note. There are already signs that the price slump is boosting demand. India’s Torrent Power Ltd bought an LNG cargo for May 26 at the high-$5 to low-$6 per million Btu level including transport and delivery and Reliance Industries Ltd is looking for 12 cargoes through March 2020.

The price of cargoes for late June were above those for early May in a recent spot supply tender in neighbouring Pakistan, a further indication that the end of the slump is approaching.

https://www.gulf-times.com/story/626549/LNG-slump-seen-close-to-end-as-price-collapse-stim

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particularly a long-needed pivot away from geopolitically charged Russian pipeline gas. Moreover, U.S. claims that its LNG is the answer for European gas and energy security needs have caused rifts in EU-US relations, particularly relations between longtime allies Washington and Berlin.  In a televised meeting with reporters and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg before a NATO summit in Brussels last year, Trump said, referring to the controversial Nordstream 2 gas pipeline project, that it was “very inappropriate” that the U.S. was paying for European defense against Russia while Germany, the biggest European economy, was supporting gas deals with Moscow. Since that time Berlin has been the first to blink as it promised to develop more LNG infrastructure and procure not only more U.S. but Qatari and other producers’ gas. However, the country is still pushing through with the Nordstream 2 project. The Russian-led $11 billion gas pipeline will stretch some 759 miles (1,222 km), running on the bed of the Baltic Sea from Russian gas fields to Germany, bypassing existing land routes over Ukraine, Poland and Belarus. It would double the existing Nordstream pipeline’s current annual capacity of 55 bcm and is expected to become operational by the end of next year. Now, the U.S. energy patch may have another hurdle to overcome, which also intersects the largest LNG market in the world – the Asia Pacific region which accounts for 72 percent of global LNG demand. On Wednesday at an LNG conference in Moscow, Shell’s Senior Deal Lead Stuart Bradford said Russian LNG is well positioned to compete with North American projects to reach new markets in Asia and the Atlantic Basin despite challenges. He added that Russian LNG can offer several location options – the planned capacity expansion at the Sakhalin plant, the Arctic with Yamal LNG and Arctic LNG 2 projects led by Russian Novatek, and the Baltic coast, with the Baltic LNG project. However, he also said that North American projects benefit from lower capital expenditures, from so-called “special relationships” as well as being supported by lower tax regimes, than their Russian project counterparts. Bradford added that the commercial arrangements in North America are implemented on “basis risks,” with gas prices based on the well-established Henry Hub, adding that competition is healthy. Shell is also forecasting that LNG sales will spike this year. Last month, the Anglo-Dutch oil major forecast that global LNG trade will rise 11% to 354 MMT this year as new facilities in Australia, the U.S., Russia and elsewhere increase supplies to Europe and Asia. More countries are also building LNG import or receiving terminals. Shell said that LNG trade rose by 27 MMT last year, with Chinese demand growth accounting for 16 MMT of those volumes.  However, some of this demand growth will not only come from China, but India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Thailand, and in time the Philippines, and Vietnam. The Philippines and Vietnam, however, have yet to construct their first LNG receiving terminals.

https://oilprice.com/Energy/Natural-Gas/Russia-US-Compete-For-Asian-LNG-Market-Share.html

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following the approval of the European Commission on 18 March. The Commission approved the aid for the construction of this LNG terminal in 2011. The increase in capacity was included in the list of Projects of Common Interest of the European Union as part of the Baltic Energy Market Interconnection Plan (BEMIP) corridor. The Polish LNG will receive PLN 553 million (€128 million) from the European Regional Development Fund and the Cohesion Fund, under the 2014-20 Infrastructure and Environment Operational Programme, which has among its priorities the improvement of energy security. The Commission said the EC assessed the measure under EU State aid rules, in particular, the Commission 2014 Guidelines on State aid for environmental protection and energy and found that it is in line with the requirements of the Guidelines.

In particular, the Commission said, the project will contribute to ensuring the security of gas supplies in Poland and in the Baltic countries by making supplies more diverse and promoting new gas transport routes in the region.

Source: LNG Global

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last October became the first major project in five years to be approved, with first exports of the super-chilled fuel planned for 2025. The second phase of the project will include two new processing lines known as trains that will double the plant’s capacity to 28 MMTPA of LNG. Andy Calitz, LNG Canada chief executive officer, said a final investment decision (FID) on phase 2 will happen before the plant’s initial production starts. “We want to take FID on phase 2 before LNG flows from phase 1. (The partners) want to have some insight overall on the project before FID,” Calitz told Reuters in an interview at the CERAWeek conference by IHS Markit. Since LNG Canada was approved, LNG projects were approved in the US Gulf Coast and off the coast of Mauritania and Senegal as producers expect a sharp rise in gas demand, particularly in Asia. Shell’s partners are Malaysia’s Petroliam Nasional (Petronas), PetroChina, Korea Gas Corporation (KOGAS) and Japan’s Mitsubishi Corporation. Meanwhile, LNG producers must avoid becoming over-reliant on the strong Chinese demand growth seen in the past two years and should intensify efforts to broaden their markets and create new uses for the fuel, senior company executives said at an energy conference this week. The warnings were underscored by this year’s drop in Asian spot prices for the super-cooled gas. LNG prices this week fell to their lowest for this time of the year since 2016, weighed down by rich supplies.

https://gulftoday.ae/business/2019/03/17/shell-decision-on-lng-canda-by-2025

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before they begin suffering the impact of this overreliance. Reuters quotes several energy industry executives as reminding their peers demand for LNG in China this year will be slower than previously expected and lower than the last two years. Also, they said the demand producers have seen come from China during these last two years does not necessarily have to be indicative of future demand. The core of the message is simple: Take it easy. “We are becoming too reliant on China in the last couple of years,” the chief executive of Australia’s Woodside Petroleum said. “It worries me because we’ve seen others drop off in the same period for demand.” “I would caution the LNG industry not to make linear extrapolations of Chinese LNG demand based on what you’ve seen in the last two years,” the chairman of Japan’s JERA, Hendrik Gordenker, said. Indeed, LNG players need to be cautious and use the bad example of all other commodities whose prices swing wildly on a whiff of trouble in Chinese demand and have done so since China began emerging as the new world economic powerhouse. But what can LNG producers do to avoid fallout in the shape of depressed prices and, ultimately, losses? For one thing, they can and should watch the trends. Shell’s latest LNG Outlook forecast LNG demand will grow steadily in the long term and the market might swing into a deficit if more production capacity does not come online. However, that’s the long run. In the next 12 months, demand for the fuel will only rise by 16 MMT versus a jump in supply of 33 MMT, according to Poten & Partners, an energy consultancy specializing in LNG. Spot prices are low, and what’s worse, Asian buyers are less willing to commit to long-term supply deals, a recent analysis from S&P Global Platts said. These long-term supply commitments are vital for the commercial viability of planned but not yet built LNG facilities, but also for the profitability of already built ones. There has been talk that Cheniere could get ahead by striking a long-term supply deal with Sinopec but that’s contingent on a trade deal between Washington and Beijing. The way to beat this slowdown is to seek new markets, on the one hand, and wage war on coal to stimulate more LNG demand, according to the energy executives attending CERAWeek. The latter is a relatively straightforward deal and fits in with a drive towards cleaner fuels altogether. The former might be tricky, however. The most logical alternative to China is India, another powerhouse. Yet, infrastructure constraints there are making LNG demand growth slower than it could have been. In this situation, producers who already have long-term supply deals are once again better placed to weather the temporary slowdown in demand than the newer kids on the block who have yet to secure long-term buyers of their LNG.

https://oilprice.com/Energy/Natural-Gas/LNG-Sector-Dangerously-Dependent-On-Chinese-Demand.html

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Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka together along with The Ministry of Highways & Road Development and Petroleum Resources Development Secretariat has decided to call public and expert comments on the draft national policy on Liquid Natural Gas. Exploratory evidence on natural gas deposits in Mannar Basin and the pursuit of relatively clean alternative fuels for enhancing the diversity of power generation energy mix have heightened the interest in natural gas in the country. First Natural Gas discovery in Sri Lanka was made in the Mannar Basin, off North Western coast in 2011. So far, exploratory drilling has made two discoveries from the same block with estimated reservoir capacities in excess of 1 Trillion Cubic Feet (TCF) of natural gas and 10 million BBL(barrels) of condensate. The draft policy explained despite positive prospects, however, Sri Lanka has no experience in natural gas in any economic sector so far and there is substantial evidence to indicate that Sri Lanka can reap significant economic, social, and environmental benefits from using natural gas as a source of energy in power, industrial, transportation, household and commercial sectors and a raw material for industrial purposes. The national policy on natural gas will facilitate the exploration and production of natural gas, importation and exportation of Liquefied Natural Gas and utilization of natural gas as an energy source and raw material; and to establish the legal, regulatory and institutional framework for the natural gas industry in Sri Lanka.

https://colombogazette.com/2019/03/22/sri-lanka-to-discuss-on-draft-national-policy-on-lng/

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Construction of an LNG export terminal near huge offshore natural gas discoveries in deepwater south of the country has been held up for years by regulatory delays. “The government has officially decided to begin talks in early April for construction of the LNG project,” Reuters quoted Tanzania’s energy ministry to have said in a statement. “We are keen to implement this key project for the economy and we plan to … conclude the talks in September this year,” the ministry said. The country’s central bank believes just starting work on the plant would add another two percentage points to annual economic growth of around seven per cent. The talks are aimed at negotiating a host government agreement, which is seen as a crucial step towards reaching a final investment decision for the long-delayed project.

https://www.thisdaylive.com/index.php/2019/03/26/tanzania-holds-talks-on-lng/

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Brazilian state-run oil company Petrobras has fined Bolivia’s state oil company YPFB after it failed to deliver liquefied natural gas (LNG) volumes secured under a contract through the Bolivia-Brazil pipeline during 2018, a Petrobras executive said. Cruz, who spoke to Reuters by phone, said the fine, paid last week, was aimed at offsetting possible losses for Petrobras, which ends up having to compensate the volumes from other sources. “At the moment it does not deliver the gas, I end up having to go to the market and buy LNG. On average, LNG is more expensive than Bolivian gas,” Cruz said. “The spirit of the fine is this: to compensate for any losses that may occur.” Cruz said YPFB had not been able to deliver the volumes Petrobras needed due to a reduction of exploratory investments in recent years, which had led to a drop in production. Bolivia’s domestic needs had also grown, constricting supply, he said. Last year, Petrobras demanded an average of 26 million cubic meters per day of natural gas, while YPFB delivered 22.6 million, according to official figures. Due to Bolivia’s difficulties, Cruz said companies are negotiating a possible revision of the volume of gas contracted.

https://energy.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/oil-and-gas/brazils-petrobras-fines-bolivia-for-failing-to-meet-lng-deliveries/68589645

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with a sulphur content above 0.5% from 2020, compared with 3.5% now, unless they are equipped with so-called scrubbers to clean up sulphur emissions. Since the deadline for the shift was set in 2016, shippers and refiners have scrambled to prepare for the new standards. “There’s certainly strong supply of compliant fuel oil, particularly in hub locations (like) Rotterdam, Singapore and Fujairah,” BP’s global head of marine fuels, Eddie Gauci, told the Fujairah Bunkering and Fuel Oil Forum. There’s been a huge amount of investment in refineries since 2015 and (it) will continue beyond 2020,” Gauci told the gathering in the United Arab Emirates, saying investment to deal with the shift had reached an estimated $1 billion. BP said in March it was set to sell its new very low sulphur fuel oil (VLSFO) globally, echoing announcements by oil majors such as Royal Dutch Shell and Exxon Mobil. In smaller ports lacking adequate fuel storage to hold the range of fuel grades needed, suppliers of compliant marine fuels could turn to floating storage, as land facilities adapt to the shift. “We will see some floating storage of high sulphur or low sulphur for a period of time until the land-based infrastructure establishes some kind of equilibrium that’s in tune with what grades of fuel are called for in particular locations,” he said.

https://energy.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/oil-and-gas/refiners-invest-1-billion-to-meet-shift-to-cleaner-marine-fuel-bp/68582918

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The independent U.S. energy producer aims to take a final investment decision on the $20 billion project in the coming months, having signed up long-term buyers for its LNG. Anadarko said all the contracts signed so far, for over 9.5 MMTPA out of a capacity of 12.88 MMTPA, were on a delivered ex-ship (DES) basis. The company could have sold the LNG on a free on board (FOB) basis, as do many U.S. LNG projects, which leaves the buyers to organise the shipping. “The project needs approximately 16 LNG vessels to service the DES contracts,” Helen Rhymes, an Anadarko spokeswoman, told Reuters. “While the specifics of the tendering process are confidential, the project plans to enter into long-term time charters with selected ship owners rather than own the vessels. An invitation to tender will be issued sometime after FID (final investment decision).” Anadarko will start work on the construction of the onshore terminal once it takes the final investment decision. Already several thousand workers are onsite clearing the ground for the facilities. Anadarko has LNG supply deals with Japanese utilities Tokyo Gas and Tohoku Electric, European utilities Centrica and EDF, India’s Bharat Petroleum , China’s CNOOC, Indonesia’s Pertamina and Royal Dutch Shell.

https://www.hellenicshippingnews.com/anadarko-to-seek-to-charter-16-tankers-for-mozambique-lng-project/

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It is expected that the new gas projects will boost the number of global fleet tankers of seagoing liquid natural gas tankers by as much as a third as shipping operators encounter sharp swings in the oil markets. The estimated cost of a vessel that can transport LNG is about $175 million each which is several times costlier than other ship types. However, shipping operators believe that the vehicles could be the most profitable trade in shipping since the 1960s when the transport of crude oil was the most successful maritime business. In years, the LNG transport business is just a small fraction of the operations of the global tanker market. However, the rapid increase in demand for natural gas as the world looks for alternatives for cleaner sources of power to replace the use of oil and coal promises better profit. The output for natural gas in the United States increased because of the improved hydraulic fracturing technology which made drilling for shale oil and gas more cost-effective. George Prokopiou, a shipowner and the chairman of Dynagas LNG Partners LP, said that they are moving into an era where fossil fuels will be reduced in the energy mix, and LNG will be used extensively in the transitional period where more clean forms of energy can be developed. He added that the shipment of LNG can’t be ignored when you are in the shipping business. Dynagas owns five icebreaking LNG carriers that have long term contracts to transport gas from the Yamal project in the Russian Arctic. Mr. Prokopiou operates more not less than 100 ships that include crude oil supertankers and dry bulk carriers owned by different companies. The biggest shipowners in the world said that they are willing to spend billions more in the coming years on LNG carriers to meet the increasing demand of the Asian market. The demand for LNG is driven by Japan, China, India, and Southeast Asia.

https://www.hellenicshippingnews.com/shipping-companies-invests-on-gas-carriers-due-to-growing-lng-demand/

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As with other Anthony Veder gas carriers, the new ship will incorporate ‘Coral’ as part of its name and be under the company’s commercial operation and ship management. “We are proud to add a new LNG carrier to our fleet in this relatively short timeframe and look forward to our close co-operation with Xinle Shipbuilding to finalise the vessel,” said Anthony Veder chief executive Jan Valkier. “Our company has a long history in building and delivering ships in China such as the LNG-fuelled liquid ethylene gas vessels Coral Star and Coral Sticho. We are excited to return to China for this latest addition to our fleet after five years’ absence.” Coral Star and Coral Sticho were both built in 2014, each with a capacity of 4,768 m3. They are two of eight vessels in the Rotterdam-based shipping company’s fleet that burn LNG as fuel. With the recent acquisition of the newbuild, Anthony Veder’s fleet will grow to 31 gas carriers, most of which are semi-pressurised/ fully refrigerated gas tankers and ethylene carriers. Other vessel types in the fleet consist of combined and dedicated LNG carriers. It also operates a fully pressurised tanker and a dedicated fully pressurised/fully refrigerated CO2 carrier.

https://www.lngworldshipping.com/news/view,dutch-shipping-company-acquires-lng-carrier-newbuild_57219.htm

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It is expected that the new gas projects will boost the number of global fleet tankers of seagoing liquid natural gas tankers by as much as a third as shipping operators encounter sharp swings in the oil markets. The estimated cost of a vessel that can transport LNG is about $175 million each which is several times costlier than other ship types. However, shipping operators believe that the vehicles could be the most profitable trade in shipping since the 1960s when the transport of crude oil was the most successful maritime business. In years, the LNG transport business is just a small fraction of the operations of the global tanker market. However, the rapid increase in demand for natural gas as the world looks for alternatives for cleaner sources of power to replace the use of oil and coal promises better profit. The output for natural gas in the United States increased because of the improved hydraulic fracturing technology which made drilling for shale oil and gas more cost-effective. George Prokopiou, a shipowner and the chairman of Dynagas LNG Partners LP, said that they are moving into an era where fossil fuels will be reduced in the energy mix, and LNG will be used extensively in the transitional period where more clean forms of energy can be developed. He added that the shipment of LNG can’t be ignored when you are in the shipping business. Dynagas owns five icebreaking LNG carriers that have long term contracts to transport gas from the Yamal project in the Russian Arctic. Mr. Prokopiou operates more not less than 100 ships that include crude oil supertankers and dry bulk carriers owned by different companies. The biggest shipowners in the world said that they are willing to spend billions more in the coming years on LNG carriers to meet the increasing demand of the Asian market. The demand for LNG is driven by Japan, China, India, and Southeast Asia.

https://www.hellenicshippingnews.com/shipping-companies-invests-on-gas-carriers-due-to-growing-lng-demand/

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“We had already signed an MoU with Adnoc about LNG bunkering, so I think there might be a lot of potential. We would like to quickly establish a joint venture with Adnoc in this area, so we can get enough demand,” Inpex president and chief executive Takayuki Ueda told The National in an interview in Abu Dhabi. Equal partnership seems to be desirable,” he added when asked about the terms of a possible partnership. Japan’s Inpex is a long-term investor in Abu Dhabi’s hydrocarbons industry, which accounts for 4.2% of the world’s crude production. The firm, which first began partnering with the national oil company in the early seventies, signed a preliminary agreement with Adnoc last year to use LNG as a bunkering fuel. With the 2020 onset of regulations for low-sulphur fuel as set by the United Nations’ International Maritime Organisation, the use of sulphur-free LNG as a fuel on non-LNG ships is expected to see an uptake. The Japanese firm saw opportunities for greater expansion in the LNG bunkering business in Abu Dhabi and the region, said Mr Ueda. Inpex, which has a mid-term capital expenditure plan of around $1.2 billion from 2018 to 2022, will look to ramp up investment this year if the price of Brent remained at more than $60 per barrel, he added. The energy firm will look to bid in future licensing rounds in Abu Dhabi and is also interested in developing the emirate’s unconventional gas resources – a sector in which the firm has begun investing recently in the US.

https://www.thenational.ae/business/energy/japan-s-inpex-eyes-lng-bunkering-joint-venture-with-adnoc-1.837812[Edited]

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