Natural Gas Daily: August 6th, 2020

Gas Poised to Resume Growth: IGU

Global gas demand is set to fall by 4% in 2020 after increasing 2% last year, due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, but growth will resume as gas replaces dirtier fuels in the energy mix, a report published by the International Gas Union, BloombergNEF (BNEF) and Italy's Snam states.

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• The longer term presents major opportunities to scale up the use of low-carbon gas technologies, the report states. Clean hydrogen, which can be derived from gas, could abate up to 37% of energy-related greenhouse gas emissions, according to BNEF estimates.

Cheniere Pivots to Black in Second Quarter

US LNG infrastructure developer and marketer Cheniere Energy said it had net income of $197mn in Q2 2020, reversing a net loss of $114mn incurred in the same period last year. Adjusted Ebitda for the period more than doubled, to $1.4bn from $615mn.

• Cheniere attributed the increased earnings primarily to higher total margins, which rose mostly due to accelerated revenues recognised for cancelled LNG cargoes and an increase in margins per mn Btu of LNG delivered to customers.

• At its Sabine Pass terminal in Louisiana, construction of Train 6 is nearly 64% complete. At the Corpus Christi Liquefaction project in Texas, the third 5mn mt/yr train is 90.5% complete and in the commissioning phase.

Oz East Coast LNG Exports Down 1% in July

LNG exports from projects located on the Australian east coast stood at 1.67mn metric tons (mt) in July, down 1.2% yr/yr, according to data published by Gladstone Ports Corporation.

• The east coast has three LNG export projects: the ConocoPhillips-Origin Energy Australia Pacific LNG, Shell’s Queensland Curtis LNG, and the Santos-led Gladstone LNG.

• Exports to China were down 18% month on month, the data showed.

Inpex Books $1.15bn Q2 Loss on Impairments

Japanese oil and gas firm Inpex suffered a yen 120.8bn ($1.15bn) net loss in the first half of the year, according to results it published, versus a yen 82.5bn profit a year earlier.

• By far the biggest factor behind Inpex's losses were yen 140bn in impairments at the company's LNG projects in Australia, booked to account for weaker prices. This included a yen 130.9bn charge at the Shell-operated 3.6mn mt/yr Prelude LNG project, where Inpex has a 17.5% position.

Petrofac, Storegga Team up for Low-Carbon Projects

UK energy services provider Petrofac and clean energy developer Storegga Geotechnologies have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on working together at low-carbon projects, the companies said.

• Petrofac recently won an engineering and project management office support contract at the Acorn project in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, which aims to produce hydrogen from North Sea gas starting in 2024, while capturing carbon from the process.

India's Adani Gas Q1 Profit Slumps

Indian gas retailer Adani Gas, a part of the Adani group, reported a 42% yr/yr drop in net profit during the three months to June 20 (Q1) owing to a decline in the volumes of gas sold, it said on August 5.

• Earlier this week, it was reported that gas supplies to gas-based power plants in India rose by over 13.1% yr/yr in June.

• In order to fight the problem of air pollution in urban pockets, India is aiming to increase the share of gas in the energy mix to 15% by 2030 from 6% today.