Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari too signaled the ban wasn’t coming. It surprised many of us who had read several media reports over the last few weeks on Niti Aayog’s plan to prohibit the sale of new fossil fuel vehicles as part of the government’s strategy to promote electric vehicle (EV). Enraged automakers met Niti Aayog officials, hoping to persuade them to drop the idea but returned more frustrated and used every media platform available to blast the ‘impractical’ idea. And yet, the Oil Minister said there was no such official plan. The anxiety of automakers was just a result of some ‘miscommunication’, he said. You might wonder what really was happening? Just a few days earlier, on 11th July, Gadkari had told Parliament about a Niti Aayog proposal that required all new three wheelers and two wheelers sold after March 2023 and March 2025, respectively, to be electric. “This has been decided after detailed deliberations with key stakeholders of different Ministries for cleaning up Indian cities and to ensure rapid transition towards Electric Vehicles and making India a manufacturing base for electric two wheelers and electric three wheelers,” Gadkari said. Again, you might wonder if the timelines were frozen after consultations with ‘key stakeholders of different ministries’, how come we have such diverse views emerging from within the government now. You might also be inclined to speculate on the reasons for this. The Modi government isn’t new to the flip flops on EVs. The first term of the Modi government was riddled with instances of ministers airing views and setting timelines on electrification of country’s transportation system that were often contradictory and rarely backed by action, prompting The Economic Times to call it ‘An Electrifying Confusion’ in an article in March 2018 that captured the EV policy muddle of the first term.

The second term promised to be different. While the ministers had barely settled in their seats, a slew of media reports showed that a Niti Aayog-led inter-ministerial panel had proposed several high-impact measures for faster adoption of EVs. The biggest of these was a phase-out plan for fossil fuel vehicles. But the heads of some of the stakeholder ministries are now saying: count us out. Is it just a squabble that precedes major policymaking? Is it about industry lobbies fighting back? Does this say something about our commitment to promoting electric vehicles and fighting killer pollution? There could be a variety of views coloured by our experience, beliefs, interests, and goals. But one thing is clear: we have been able to successfully carry The Great EV Policy Confusion from the first to the second term of the Modi government.

https://energy.economictimes.indiatimes.com/energy-speak/the-great-ev-policy-confusion-2-0-begins/3681

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This could result in sub-optimal investments in both conventional and EV manufacturing, leading to demand-supply mismatch in future. Similarly, consumers, unsure of future ecosystem support, would be slower in buying electric vehicles, hurting their demand. This would ensure EVs take much longer, if at all, to go mainstream. The confusion can be equally damaging to the fossil fuel supplier industry as companies’ investment decisions enormously depend on the composition of vehicles in future. If all new vehicles were to be electric, it can dramatically reduce demand for petrol and diesel, which would require refiners to reassess their capital allocation for refining and marketing. Oil firms in India plan to spend more than Rs 1.2 lakh crore to set up brand new city gas network to supply CNG vehicles, homes and industries. They also plan to spend lakhs of crores of rupees to raise refining capacity by three-fourths and double the number of filling stations they operate. The confusion of the last five years has meant we have barely progressed on EV adoption while China, or other countries serious about fighting pollution, have made massive progress. The market share of electric cars is mere 0.06% in India while it’s 2% in China and 39% in Norway, according to the Economic Survey. Similarly, India has about 150 public charging stations while China has 70,000 and the US has 24,000. Meanwhile, pollution has intensified in Indian cities. An estimated 74,000 premature deaths were attributable to transportation emission in India in 2015, up 28% from 2010, according to a report by researchers at The International Council on Clean Transportation. India can decide to permit only electric vehicles after a decade. It can decide against barring fossil fuel vehicles from its roads ever. It can favour a middle path permitting certain low-emission fossil fuel vehicles on roads but not all after a decade or so. Any decision the government takes would have some bitter-sweet consequences for different stakeholders. And yet this would be better than the dense fog of confusion that currently envelops EV policy making. The fog must lift and the government as a whole – not one arm or the other – should lay out the roadmap for the most consequential energy and transport transition of our times.

https://energy.economictimes.indiatimes.com/energy-speak/the-great-ev-policy-confusion-2-0-begins/3681

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The Air clean plan will be implemented in different phases which start from next year onwards. The diesel cars older than more than 15 years will be banned from going within the A10 ring road around the Dutch capital by 2022. Smoke emitting buses and coaches will be banned after 2022. The ban will also be imposed on the pleasure craft and mopeds by 2025 all the traffic in the urban area must be pollution free by 2030. To encourage EV adoption, residents to go electric by providing EV charging stations to every EV buyer. Currently, Amsterdam has 3,000 charging stations and there is a need to add more 16,000 and 23,000 by 2025. As usual, the common hindrances to the good cause, the Rai Association, the automotive industry’s lobby group, is not favoring the plan, “Many tens of thousands of families who have no money for an electric car will soon be left out in the cold. That makes Amsterdam a city of the rich,” said a spokesman. Amsterdam has joined with many European cities which are also following the same cause of removing the pollution from the country. Madrid, a central capital of Spain restricted the access to gas vehicles made prior to 2000 and diesel vehicles to 2006. Rome has taken the pledge to ban diesel vehicles by 2024. The Danish government wants to eliminate gas and diesel cars by 2030 and hybrids by 2035. Many countries are taking initiatives to eliminate pollution levels in the country as it is the need for the people to take a step now, otherwise, the future will become worst to live in. 

Source: electricvehicles.in

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Conventional energy sources of coal and oil constitute more than 80% of India’s energy basket and the demand for energy will continue to grow as the country’s economy expands further. “EV is a priority but the incremental requirement of fuel will have to be met through a combination of BS-VI grade petrol and diesel, CNG and biofuels alongside EV,” he told reporters on sidelines of an industry event here. The NITI Aayog has reportedly proposed that after 2030, only electric vehicles should be sold in India. A panel headed by NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant had earlier suggested that only EV (three-wheelers and two-wheelers) with an engine capacity of up to 150 cc should be sold from 2025 onwards. The policy think-tank believes that a move to allow salve only EVs from 2030 will expand the scope of the clean fuel technology beyond two-and three-wheelers in the country. “Is there any government paper that mentions that petrol and diesel vehicles will be banned from a particular date? India cannot afford to do that,” Pradhan said. India consumed 211.6 million tonne of petroleum products in 2018-19. Of this, diesel consumption was 83.5 million tonne and petrol 28.3 million tonne. While the country will switch to the usage of ultra-clean BS-VI grade petrol and diesel, meeting emission standards equivalent to euro-VI fuels, from April 1, 2020, the government is aggressively pushing for increased usage of CNG by automobiles particularly in public transport. Even in petrol and diesel, it is mixing sugarcane-extracted ethanol and non-edible oils, respectively, to reduce dependence on conventional oil. He also said that biogas generated from city and agriculture waste is being heavily promoted. “India has energy demand that is growing at the fastest rate in the world and no one source can meet it. It has to be a combination of fuels,” he said. According to the NITI Aayog, 100 per cent EV sale by 2030 can reduce India’s import dependence by a big margin. A joint study by the NITI Aayog and Rocky Mountain Institute, USA suggests that India can save 64% of anticipated road-based mobility-related energy demand and 37% of carbon emissions in 2030 by pursuing a shared, electric, and connected mobility future. India is currently 83% dependent on imports to meet its oil needs.

https://www.newindianexpress.com/business/2019/jul/16/no-plan-to-completely-ban-petrol-and-diesel-vehicles-petroleum-minister-dharmendra-pradhan-2004856.html

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The sources said that to resolve the conflict arising out of the same entity owning the two jobs, bifurcating GAIL is being considered. While previously selling of the marketing business, possibly to another state-owned firm, was being considered, the government is now mulling on hiving off the pipelines into a separate entity and selling off a majority stake in it, they said. GAIL has multiple long-term contracts to import gas in its liquid form (LNG) from countries such as the US and no strategic buyer would like to take the responsibility of those, particularly when the fuel is available at a cheaper price in the spot or current market, the sources said. They said it is now being considered that GAIL continues with the marketing business that would include all the sale contracts as also city gas retailing. The pipeline business can be spun off into a separate company, where the government may divest a majority stake to a strategic investor such as Canadian asset management company, Brookfield that recently bought a 1,480-km pipeline owned by Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries (RIL). The sources said the strategic partner will operate the pipelines and give access on a non-discriminatory basis to any entity wanting to transport gas either from a natural gas field or an LNG import terminal to consumers. GAIL already keeps separate accounts for its gas pipeline and marketing businesses, making it easier to split them into two entities. By unbundling GAIL and opening the sector, the government hopes to increase gas use to 15 percent of the energy mix by 2030 from the current 6.2 percent. The sources said the oil ministry has not been very happy with GAIL’s performance in building a pipeline network. Besides, there is a possible conflict of interest in its role as an infrastructure provider and carrier. GAIL’s marketing business formed 76 percent of its 2018-19 total sales and about 30 percent pre-tax profit. The government has a 54.89 percent stake in GAIL India. Its current market cap is Rs 65,600 crore.

https://www.firstpost.com/business/govt-considers-splitting-gail-to-hive-off-pipeline-business-into-a-separate-entity-sell-it-to-strategic-investor-6999821.html

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The Narendra Modi government is looking into a plan to unbundle the gas transmission and marketing business of GAIL. For the unbundling, the government-owned GAIL had entrusted EY as a consultant. According to a government source, GAIL and Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) are likely to take equity in the planned gas exchange, which is a part of the natural gas trading hub. In April 2018, KPMG came out with an initial report submitted to the Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB) for the creation of a gas hub in India. The ministry of petroleum and natural gas is likely to seek the approval of the Union Cabinet. Interestingly, the government is in the process of taking a final call on whether nomination gas will be a part of the gas hub. “If nomination gas sold at a lower rate is brought into this trading hub, it will be a huge boost for producers like ONGC and Oil India. The government is yet to take a final call on this,” he said. Based on the plan, existing commodity exchanges like the Indian Energy Exchange (IEX) and Multi Commodity Exchange of India (MCX) may be part of the planned gas exchange along with ONGC and GAIL. RS Sharma, former chairman of ONGC, however, said, “I believe a new entity should be created for running the gas exchange. None of the exiting players, including ONGC or GAIL, should be a part of it. If formed like a regulatory body, it will not even require a capital investment.” In 2017, refining companies like Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) and Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL) had shown their interest in acquiring GAIL to expand their gas marketing business. Under the Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board Act of 2006, marketing and transmission functions should not be performed by the same entity. Though GAIL did not spin off its marketing business, it decided to split its business and accounts into marketing and transmission units. Last year, Union petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan had said that the primary job of GAIL was to lay gas infrastructure in the country, while the marketing can be “done by anyone.”

https://www.business-standard.com/article/economy-policy/india-is-likely-to-set-up-gas-trading-hub-by-first-quarter-of-2020-21-119072201403_1.html

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The department of investment and public asset management (DIPAM) will be asked to formalise a cabinet note by the end of this month, the person said. The move, if implemented, will help create more options for the government to achieve its disinvestment target of Rs 1.05 lakh crore for the current fiscal. Threshold of 26% is being considered as the company law allows a shareholder with stake of over 25% to block a resolution in a company, the official said. In her budget speech on July 5, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman had said the government would modify the present policy of retaining 51% government stake in state-run firms to retaining 51% stake inclusive of the stake of government-controlled institutions. This means that companies in which public institutions such as the Life Insurance Corporation of India have stakes, the government will slash its own holding to below 51%. In a post budget interaction with ET, Atanu Chakraborty, secretary at the investment and public asset management department, had noted that the government has for the first time separated the marriage between control and 51% stake. “We have decided to go below 51% and open much larger investment space for people to come in, including international funds, which is needed,” he had said. Chakraborty had also said promoters don’t even hold 2-3% in a lot of professionally run companies, and in around 18 Sensex companies, promoter group holding is below 40%. The official cited earlier said the government can command a premium for its 26% holding if it decides to exit the firm at a later date. Experts, however, opine that the government should not hold on to 26% threshold if it is looking to give up management control. “Look what happened in the case of Air India,” said MP Shorawala, former independent director with state run Concor. Last year, the government had invited expression of interest (EoI) to sell 74% stake in the national carrier but no investor turned up. 

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/economy/policy/govt-looks-to-cut-stake-in-select-state-run-entities-to-up-to-26/articleshow/70321026.cms

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“India is second-fastest growing gas markets globally. In recent years, there has been a significant policy push by the Indian government to improve infrastructure, which has included giving new licences for city gas distribution, raising pipeline tariffs for long-haul pipes, and banning more polluting fuels like fuel oil and petcoke,” Morgan Stanley said today. The multinational investment bank added that India is investing significantly to meet its growing demand. “The county has over $30-billion capex allocated to the creation of gas import and distribution infrastructure and the revival of domestic gas production from financial year 2019-20 onward for pipelines, city gas infrastructure, fuelling infrastructure, and doubling its LNG import facilities,” it said in a report. The country has five new terminals under construction with 25.5 MMTPA of capacity that are likely to be completed by 2020. These terminals will ease import constraints in the existing western and northern market and also make gas available in the southern and eastern parts of the country. India’s LNG demand is expected to grow from 22 MMT in 2018 to 31 MT in 2025 at a compounded annual growth rate of 4%. India, as a gas market, is extremely price-sensitive, with demand fluctuating between LNG, propane, and fuel oil, depending on the economics, especially for power and industrial gas usage. With gas prices set to remain low structurally after nearly 20 years of oil parity economics, the potential for this market to use gas could be as high as $12 billion to $15 billion by 2025, according to the report. The banks also pointed out that cheap gas is a boon for Indian consumers at a time when gas is will likely to form a big part of the solution to control fossil fuel pollution, with nearly 177 cities set to have gas networks by 2025. Gas infrastructure will cover 2.2 times more people, or 50 per cent of the population in five years, and five times more households will have access to gas. We estimate this will drive investment of about four times the current market cap of listed city gas players. By 2024, we see India’s gas penetration rising two times to about 12 per cent, the equivalent of China in 2006,” it said. The report also pointed out that despite significant growth, India is still a decade behind China – the fastest-growing gas market — on gas infrastructure and penetration, with current gas penetration levels similar to China in 2004. China is expected to maintain double-digit growth on gas consumption in 2019-21, supported by the government’s strong initiatives to improve air quality.

https://energy.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/oil-and-gas/india-becomes-second-fastest-growing-gas-market-30-billion-war-chest-ready-for-supply-boom/70342243

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indices will be published until Oct. 31 this year, provided “there is sufficient data for an accurate and robust index to be published”, Energy Market Company (EMC) said in an undated statement on its website. Sling was developed jointly by EMC, the market operator of Singapore’s wholesale electricity market, and Singapore Exchange (SGX) SGX.SI, and introduced in late 2015 in a bid to develop Singapore as a price hub for the super-chilled fuel. EMC is a wholly owned unit of Asian Gateway Investments, which is also a SGX subsidiary. EMC will discontinue the Sling indices after low participation over the past few years, an SGX spokeswoman told Reuters in an emailed statement. SGX delisted the futures and swaps settling on these indices with effect from July 29, the spokeswoman added. “LNG remains an important commodity for SGX. Following our acquisition of the Baltic Exchange in 2016, we are refocusing our efforts on the carriage of LNG as an internationally traded seaborne commodity,” she said, adding that the company will shift efforts toward delivering indices for LNG shipping. Through the Baltic Exchange, it has created a number of LNG freight indices, the first of which was launched in March and it plans to launch two more indices by the year-end, she said. Sling comprise three indices – Singapore Sling, North Asia Sling and Dubai/Kuwait/India Sling. It was not immediately clear if any contracts are currently using the Sling indices as pricing reference. “While SGX has been keen to promote itself in the LNG commodity space, it has faced competition from more established pricing agencies and has failed to gain a foothold,” said Chong Zhi Xin, associate director of Southeast Asia Power, Gas, Coal and Renewables at research firm IHS Markit. S&P Global Platts’ Japan Korea Marker (JKM) in which liquidity has been growing rapidly over the past two years is fast becoming the main benchmark for spot cargoes in Asia and appears to have nudged out competitors in the sector.

Source: LNG Global [edited]

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TechnipFMC’s Paris-listed shares rose 3.2% in early session trading, as analysts welcomed the new contract. TechnipFMC said the consolidated value of the contract to it for Arctic LNG-2 was $7.6 billion and consisted of three LNG trains, each with a capacity of 6.6 MMTPA. The Arctic LNG 2 project aims to develop more than 7 billion barrels of oil equivalent (boe) of resources. Novatek holds a 60% stake in the project, while French oil and gas major Total, China’s CNPC, CNOOC , and Japan Arctic LNG consortium each hold 10%. Novatek said on Tuesday it had reached its target for participation in the project with the completion of stake sales, meaning it could now make a final investment decision. The project is expected to have a total production capacity of 19.8 MMTPA, or 535,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day. TechnipFMC, created by a 2016 merger of France’s Technip and U.S. rival FMC Technologies, had previously carried out design engineering and construction work on Novatek’s Yamal LNG project. “We are extremely honoured to be entrusted with this new contract by Novatek and its partners. We are leveraging our successful track record on the Yamal LNG project and notably the modular fabrication scheme,” Nello Uccelletti, president of onshore/offshore operations at TechnipFMC, said in a statement. In a separate statement, the company said its board had approved a quarterly cash dividend of $0.13 per ordinary share payable on or shortly after Sept. 4.

Source: LNG Global/Reuters [Edited]

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South Africa is pushing to diversify its energy sources away from coal, which supplies more than 90% of its electricity, and to expand capacity to reduce power cuts that have hit growth. Transnet, which operates gas pipelines, railway lines and ports in South Africa, will lead the project after the World Bank’s International Finance Corp pledged $2 million to help finalise the design, finance, construction and operation plans. The project requires re-purposing existing pipelines to transport gas between the east coast city of Durban and commercial hub Johannesburg. “We are hoping second quarter or third quarter 2020 for the request for quotations,” which is part of the tender process, said Jabulani Sithole, a Transnet oil and gas business manager. “Based on the work we have done we believe that we are able to land the gas in South Africa by 2024,” Sithole told Reuters. He said it was vital to secure new gas supplies as Sasol , which pipes the bulk of South Africa’s gas needs from Mozambique, had flagged it would face supply constraints from 2023 due to maturing fields at Temane and Pande. A Sasol spokesman confirmed the supply deficit scenario. A pre-feasibility study would determine costs of the LNG terminal project, Sithole said, adding that Transnet would seek to attract LNG suppliers such as Shell and BP. “The final cost of the gas will be determined in the negotiations between the gas supplier and off-takers,” said Sithole, adding that a special purpose vehicle would be formed to help fund the project through debt and equity financing. Transnet aims to use its existing gas pipelines and rail infrastructure to lower local transport and distribution costs. Sithole said the  regasification terminal could be on land or a Floating Storage Regasification Unit serving Richards Bay and other ports, including Coega where plans for a gas-fired power plant were being considered. “We are looking at all options,” he said. France’s Total said in February it had found about 1 billion barrels of hydrocarbon resources, including a significant gas condensate resource, off South Africa’s east coast. 

Source: Reuters/LNG Global

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Spot prices for September delivery to Northeast Asia are estimated to be about $4.60 per MMBtu, down 10 cents from last week, trade sources said. Prices for cargoes delivered in August are estimated to be $4.20 per MMBtu, down 20 cents from last week, they added. Traders are likely waiting for the European gas prices to come down before taking a position on LNG, a Singapore-based industry source said. “The LNG market is quiet but the gas market is not and many LNG buyers are just waiting on the sidelines for the gas market to cool down before they come in to buy,” the source added. Both the Dutch month-ahead and British month-ahead contracts have fallen 20 percent in the past week after a two-week long period of rises on expected supply flows due to outages in Norway and short-covering.     September contracts, which are not front-month yet, have also fallen over the week to around $4.10 per MMBtu for the British price and $3.85 for the Dutch, widening the spread between spot Asian LNG and the European hubs considerably. Despite that, many traders say the spread is not wide enough and nor is there the kind of Asian demand to kick-start arbitrage from the Atlantic to the Pacific Basin.

Still, traders expect demand to pick up ahead of winter. “There have been transactions above $5 this week, but European (gas) hubs are very volatile, and that is reflected by traders into optimisation,” a Singapore-based LNG trader said. Angola LNG offered a cargo for August to September delivery to as far as Singapore in a tender that closes next week while Russia’s Novatek has offered a cargo for mid-September loading from Rotterdam’s Gate terminal in the GLX platform, industry sources said. In term contracts, four companies are vying for a massive LNG tender by Pakistan to buy 240 cargoes for a period of 10 years, sources said. Indonesia’s Tangguh LNG plant may have offered two cargoes a month for loading or delivery over October to December into Northeast Asia earlier this month though it was not immediately clear if it had sold the cargoes.

Japan’s Nippon Steel may have bought a cargo for delivery in September at about $4.60 per MMBtu, an industry source said. Royal Dutch Shell’s LNG tanker ‘Barcelona Knutsen’ has loaded a cargo at Peru LNG and is now crossing the Pacific Ocean to deliver a cargo into China in the first half of August, data intelligence firm Kpler said on Thursday (July18). This will make it the fourth LNG cargo to be delivered from Peru to China so far this year, up from just one cargo last year, Refinitiv Eikon shipping data showed.

Source: LNG Global

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The United States and China will become the world’s biggest LNG exporters and importers, respectively, in five years, according to projections by the International Energy Agency (IEA). He was speaking at a presentation sponsored by Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs Centre on Global Energy Policy in New York. China’s LNG imports, meanwhile, are expected to surge to over 100 bcm in 2024, topping those of current world leader Japan. Japan’s LNG imports have mostly declined since peaking in 2014 as utilities restart some nuclear plants shut for mandatory safety inspections and testing after an earthquake and tsunami damaged the Fukushima nuclear plant in 2011. IEA said it expects world LNG demand to grow about 4% a year through 2024. To meet that demand, developers made final investment decisions in 2018 to add about 29 bcm of new export capacity and have doubled that to 58 bcm so far in 2019, Fraser said. In addition, some developers said they could make final investment decisions later this year that would add over 120 bcm of capacity, IEA said, including about 30 bcm in the United States and 43 bcm in Qatar. “We need something, but we’re not sure we need anything near that much,” Fraser said, noting “We think that without further investment just assuming those projects that have already taken (final investment decisions) to date … things will start to get tight around 2024.” World LNG demand reached a record 432 bcm in 2018 after soaring about 10% a year over the past few years due primarily to fast growth in China. IEA said China’s demand for natural gas, which soared 18% in 2018, is driven by environmental policies switching most industrial and residential consumers from coal to gas to reduce air pollution. IEA said it expects the increase in gas consumption in China to slow to an annual rate of 8% through 2024 due to slower economic growth. The United States, which is already the world’s biggest gas producer, will see production grow to over one trillion bcm in 2024, boosting its share of global output to about 23%, according to IEA projections.

https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/world/us-china-will-be-worlds-biggest-lng-exporter-and-importer-in-2024-iea-4213011.html

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Dutch and British month-ahead gas prices exceeded Asian spot LNG in April for the first time in four years. Asian LNG prices tend to be higher due to the huge demand there with few alternative supplies. The switch in the price values is another twist in a unique year for the fast-expanding commodity as soaring production from new plants, much of it in the U.S. Gulf Coast, coincides with tepid demand from Asia, normally consumer of 75% of global LNG. Month-ahead Dutch gas was $4.56 per MMBtu and the British equivalent was $4.48 per MMBtu by 1315 GMT on Monday (July 15), while Asian spot LNG for August was heard at $4.40 per MMBtu. The arbitrage, whereby Atlantic Basin LNG – including from the U.S., Russia and West Africa – headed for Europe instead travels the longer distance to Asia to fetch a higher price, has been largely closed for most of the year. That is because the spread has rarely exceeded the extra cost of shipping – broadly defined as a dollar per MMBtu. Forward price curves moreover indicate the situation is unlikely to change until at least October. When the Japan/Korea Marker (JKM) for the months of August, September and October is compared to the Dutch Title Transfer Facility (TTF) forward prices, the spread is below $1 per MMBtu. For October, it is 46 cents and was as low as 28 cents. The JKM is a benchmark published by commodity pricing agency S&P Global Platts and Asia’s main LNG pricing benchmark for the spot market. Dutch and British month-ahead gas prices soared this month in part due to a string of planned outages in Norway, although their 38% to 44% gains in the past two weeks have not fully reversed the prolonged 66% percent fall since last October. The rise has, nevertheless, given a breather to European suppliers that had contracted to buy U.S. LNG by widening the spread with the U.S. Henry Hub gas price. At one point last month the spread did not cover shipping costs. With U.S. production the largest source of increased supply in the past year, Europe’s ability to absorb excess LNG is being tested. Europe has long been seen as the industry’s “destination of last resort” due to its flexible continent-wide markets.

Source: LNG Global

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Pluto was shut down for planned maintenance in June, but this period had to be extended by nearly three weeks to the end of the month due to unexpected problems with the plant’s mixed refrigerant compressor. The company’s total revenue for the second financial quarter of 2019 has fallen to $US836 million ($1.19 billion) from the previous quarter’s $US1.424 billion, a 41% drop. Its sales revenue accounted for $US738 million of the $US836 million figure, down from $US1.22 billion in sales revenue posted in the previous quarter (a 32% drop). The company’s production also fell to 17.3 million barrels of oil equivalent from 22.1 million barrels a year earlier. This represented Woodside’s first drop in sales revenue since the June 2018 quarter, where the company suffered a smaller dip of $87 million on the previous quarter. “Production and sales revenue were lower compared with the previous quarter due to the major turnaround at Pluto LNG,” Woodside chief executive officer Peter Coleman said. “We delivered strong LNG production from both North West Shelf, where we have optimised performance of the LNG trains, and Wheatstone LNG, which achieved record daily LNG production.” Woodside also started commissioning at the $US1.9 billion Greater Enfield oil project offshore Western Australia in the quarter. Greater Enfield is set up as a joint venture between Woodside (60 per cent) and Mitsui, one of Japan’s seven major sogo shosha (trading companies).

https://www.australianmining.com.au/oil-gas/news-oil-gas/woodside-returns-dip-on-pluto-lng-issues-low-prices/ https://www.australianmining.com.au/oil-gas/news-oil-gas/woodside-returns-dip-on-pluto-lng-issues-low-prices/

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The deal includes the supply of up to 0.5 MMTPA of regasified LNG from Total’s global portfolio to Benin for 15 years, starting in 2021. Total will develop and operate the regasification infrastructure that will comprise a floating storage and re-gasification unit (FSRU) located offshore Benin and an offshore pipeline connexion to the existing and planned 127MW power plants in Maria Gléta. Benin’s government is working to restore Benin’s energy independence. A new legislative framework fosters the participation of private capital in the energy sector. For Total, the project is in line with group’s strategy to develop new gas markets by unlocking access to LNG for fast-growing economies, said Laurent Vivier, Senior Vice President Gas at Total. “Access to LNG will help Benin to meet growing domestic energy demand and add more natural gas to the country’s current energy mix, hence reducing its carbon intensity.” Total is the second-largest private global LNG player, with an overall portfolio of around 40 MMTPA by 2020 and a worldwide market share of 10 percent. Through its stakes in liquefaction plants located in Qatar, Nigeria, Russia, Norway, Oman, Egypt, the UAE, the U.S., Australia or Angola, the Group sells LNG in all global markets.

https://www.maritime-executive.com/article/total-to-develop-fsru-facility-in-benin

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which include Delek and Noble Energy, signed agreements with Golar LNG Ltd and Exmar NV to receive plans for a FLNG facility. The aim is to enter into a long-term agreement with one that will finance, build, operate and maintain the facility if a final decision is made to go ahead with the project. The facility will allow liquefaction of natural gas at a capacity of 2.4-5 million tons per year. According to the plan being examined, processed natural gas will be piped from the Leviathan production platform to the FLNG facility which will be located offshore Israel, where the gas will be liquefied and transferred to LNG vessels. “Liquefying the natural gas from Leviathan will enable us to transport it worldwide, thus reaching new export markets, mainly in Europe and in Asia,” Delek Drilling CEO Yossi Abu said. Leviathan, with 22 trillion cubic feet of reserves, is one of the world’s largest gas discoveries of the past decade.

https://www.hellenicshippingnews.com/leviathan-partners-considering-lng-facility-offshore-israel/

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This is the largest quantity of LNG that has ever been bunkered and proves that this clean fuel is available anywhere now. Moreover, the business case for LNG-powered vessels remains very compelling and hurdles are coming down for the widespread adoption of this fuel. “It was a complex project to supply this eight-legged innovative crane vessel. I’d like to thank Pavilion Gas and SLNG for the support in Singapore and Anthony Veder and Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement, our shipping partners, which completed this Dutch-Singaporean project. Titan LNG looks forward to supplying HEEREMA with more LNG in the future to fulfil our mission of lowering harmful emissions of the marine and industrial sector,” said Niels den Nijs, CEO Titan LNG. Koos-Jan van Brouwershaven, CEO HEEREMA, also commented: “Not only is the Sleipnir the world’s largest and strongest vessel, it is also first of its kind as far as sustainability goes. Sustainability is an integral part of HMC’s identity, embedded in our daily work practices. But we intend to do far more than that. It shows that we act sustainable because we want to. Not because we have to. This specific project of bunkering LNG is proof of this ambition. We are very pleased to work together with Dutch Company Titan LNG, since it provided us with good solutions for bunkering, in Singapore as well as in Spain.” Titan LNG chartered the Coral Fraseri for this delivery, the newest addition of the Anthony Veder small scale LNG pool of vessels. The ship loaded in Singapore at the SLNG terminal where Titan LNG sourced the fuel from Pavilion Gas, the Singaporean gas and LNG supplier. The Coral Fraseri followed the Sleipnir offshore and performed a ship-to-ship operation to cool down and fill the tanks.

https://www.ngvjournal.com/s1-news/c7-lng-h2-blends/worlds-largest-lng-bunkering-operation-took-place-in-singapore/

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The mining giant said that introducing LNG-fuelled ships into its maritime supply chain will help to eliminate nitrogen oxide and sulphur oxide emissions, and significantly reduce carbon dioxide emissions along the busy bulk transport route globally. “We recognise we have a stewardship role, working with our customers, suppliers and others to influence emissions reductions across the full life cycle of our products,” commented Rashpal Bhatti, vice president of maritime and supply chain excellence at BHP. The tender is open to a select group of industry leaders, from shipowners, banks and LNG fuel network providers. As well as LNG-fuelled transport for up to 10% of its iron ore, the tender seeks other innovative solutions that can lower greenhouse gas emissions and increase productivity from BHP’s freight requirements. “While LNG may not be the sustainable homogenous fuel of choice for a zero carbon future, we are not prepared to wait for a 100% compliant solution if we know that, together with our partners, we can make significant progress now,” Bhatti said. “This new tender adds to the work BHP is doing with customers, suppliers and parties along our value chain to influence emissions reductions from the transport and use of our products,” he added. The latest tender comes more than two years after the signing of a ‘Green Corridor’ project involving BHP, DNV GL, Rio Tinto, Shanghai Merchant Ship Design and Research Institute (Sdari) and Woodside Energy, on studying the launch of LNG-fuelled capesize bulk carriers. The ‘Green Corridor’ project looks to deploy LNG-fuelled capsizes to serve the route between Australia and China.

https://www.seatrade-maritime.com/news/asia/bhp-calls-tender-for-lng-fuelled-bulk-carrier.html

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The ship experienced a change of engines in recent months, and is joining the new-build smart ship Hypatia de Alejandría and the also converted Nápoles, which are already operating with this cleaner fuel. The Abel Matutes covers the València-Ibiza-Palma route and at the end of the month it will join the Huelva-Canarias route, where the Nápoles LNG-powered ferry is currently sailing. The main engines of the Abel Matutes ferry, which has already completed the sea tests with satisfactory results, were replaced by two MAK 9M 46 dual fuel engines, which allow it to sail with both natural gas and fuel oil. In the conversion works, which lasted five months, two LNG tanks of 178 cubic meters each were installed. This will allow the ship to have a range of about 1,000 miles. Abel Matutes was the first passenger ferry in Spain to sail with auxiliary natural gas generators in 2017. This project, which began in 2015, was Baleària’s first contact with natural gas navigation, being today the pioneer shipping company in the use of LNG as fuel. The conversion process was carried out thanks to the LNGHIVE2 Green & Smart Links project, co-financed by the CEF program of the European Commission. By 2021 Baleària will have nine ships powered by LNG: six converted and three new-build.

https://www.ngvjournal.com/s1-news/c7-lng-h2-blends/balearias-third-lng-powered-smart-ship-starts-operations-in-spain/

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The SIMOPS bunkering was carried out on the LNG-powered CONTAINERSHIPS NORD vessel in the Port of Rotterdam. The ship thus became the first container carrier performing SIMOPS in Europe by means of “ship-to-ship” bunkering. To ensure a fluent and safe ship-to-ship bunkering, Containerships worked closely together with Shell, its bunker supplier, with the Port of Rotterdam and with the RST Terminal. The vessel received approximately 200 tons of LNG. This unprecedented achievement paves the way for this procedure to be performed on other LNG-powered vessels, including the recently delivered CONTAINERSHIPS POLAR, the sister ship of the CONTAINERSHIPS NORD. Thanks to SIMOPS, the ship’s stay in the port can be reduced significantly and operational delays avoided. Therefore, transit times can be reduced, offering CMA CGM Group customers a highly reliable and fast connection between Northern Europe and the Baltics. A pioneer in the use of LNG to power container ships, CMA CGM is set to take delivery of 20 LNG-powered vessels by 2022, including nine 22,000-TEU ships which are scheduled to be delivered from 2020.

https://www.ngvjournal.com/s1-news/c7-lng-h2-blends/first-simultaneous-operations-of-lng-bunkering-in-europe/

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This project is intended to establish Oman as a regional LNG bunkering hub capable of supplying LNG as a fuel to marine vessels. The scope of work during the FEED phase includes fully defining the onshore mid-scale LNG facilities and preparing a competitive tender for the engineering, procurement, supply, construction and commissioning phase. The global LNG bunkering market is entering a rapid growth period driven largely by the International Maritime Organization’s legislation to significantly limit sulfur emissions. “This award is a reflection of McDermott’s 60-year history of delivering innovative LNG solutions worldwide, beginning with our tank storage solutions in the 1950s, to our liquefaction capabilities today,” said Linh Austin, Senior Vice President, Middle East and North Africa. Work on the project will begin immediately and the contract award will be reflected in McDermott’s second quarter 2019 backlog.

https://www.ngvjournal.com/s1-news/c7-lng-h2-blends/oman-plans-to-become-a-regional-lng-bunkering-hub/

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 Sohar is adjacent to the Strait of Hormuz, making it well positioned as a potential LNG bunkering hub as IMO2020 approaches.  “This award is a reflection of McDermott’s 60-year history of delivering innovative LNG solutions worldwide, beginning with our tank storage solutions in the 1950s to our liquefaction capabilities today,” said Linh Austin, McDermott’s SVP for Middle East and North Africa. The scope of work includes defining the onshore LNG liquefaction facility, which will be a mid-size installation. The plan calls for a capacity of 1 MMTPA – much smaller than most LNG export terminals, which usually have capacities in the range of 5-15 MMTPA. McDermott will also prepare the tender for the project’s EPC contract.  French oil major Total is partnering with the Oman Oil Company to develop the bunkering terminal, which will be fed by several new natural gas discoveries in Oman’s Greater Barik region. Total hopes to reach a gas production potential of about 500 million cubic feet per day, and perhaps more. (Shell is the operator of the gas fields with a 75% stake, while Total holds the remaining 25%.) . French ocean carrier CMA CGM’s flagship rotation, French Asia Line 1, is served by the line’s very largest vessels, and it includes a port call near Sohar. The line has ordered nine LNG-powered megamax boxships of 22,000 TEU each, and an LNG bunkering facility in Oman would provide them with a refueling station near the midpoint of their voyage. Korea Gas Corporation (Kogas) has studied the possibility of an LNG bunkering service at the nearby port of Fujairah, the region’s primary hub for conventional bunker fuel. 

https://www.maritime-executive.com/article/total-moves-forward-with-lng-bunkering-at-port-of-sohar

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“The adoption of MARPOL”), these global limitations will require operators to consider alternatives to the current widespread use of high-sulphur fuel oil (HSFO). Such alternatives include the installation of scrubber systems to remove sulphur from the gas stream or a switch to very-low sulphur fuel oil (VLSFO), marine gasoil (MGO), or liquefied natural gas (LNG). Limited desulphurization-refining capacity  as well as other logistical considerations constrain the supply of VLSFO and MGO. Therefore, vessel operators may experience fuel shortages and a sharp rise in prices on the back of an expected spike in demand. LNG’s widespread use as a marine transport fuel, however, is primarily constrained by limited LNG bunkering infrastructure. In fact, several countries, such as Belgium and Singapore, are currently investing in this area to increase the viability of LNG as an alternative fuel supply, though converting existing vessels to accommodate LNG is expensive. Therefore, nearly all growth in this area will come from newly built vessels or LNG-ready vessels. In addition to the cost of conversion, shipowners and operators face three challenges. First, there are only a few months left before the new emissions limitations come to pass. Second, owners and operators will need to consider the potential LNG shortages and price increases, both likely results of the sudden increase in demand. And finally, they will be on the hook to provide commercial rationale to stakeholders for meeting these new regulations. While the value proposition of LNG varies across segments of the shipping sector, it is (perhaps unsurprisingly) most attractive as a fuel for the approximately 550 LNG carriers currently operating worldwide. We expect to see a rapid rise in adoption of LNG as a fuel in this segment, potentially increasing demand by 9 MMTPA, or 3.0 percent of annual demand, over the next two years. Therefore, ship-owners and operators in 2020 should consider switching to forced LNG boil-off gas (BOG).

https://www.hellenicshippingnews.com/mckinsey-9-mtpa-increase-in-use-of-lng-as-lng-carrier-bunker-fuel-on-1-1-2020/[Edited]

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