Natural Gas Daily: December 15th, 2020

NORWAY CLEARS FUNDS FOR $2.9BN CCS PLAN

Norway's parliament has approved funding for the Longship carbon capture and storage (CCS) scheme, which the government has described as the country's biggest ever climate project.

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• Longship will initially involve the capture of CO2 from a cement factory in Brevik and a waste incineration plant in Oslo.

• Under Northern Lights, which besides Equinor also involves Shell and Total, the captured CO2 will be delivered via tankers to a reception plant north-west of Bergen and then piped offshore to an aquifer some 3 km under the seabed.

ROSNEFT REPORTS GAS FINDS IN KARA SEA

Russia's Rosneft has made a pair of gas discoveries in the Arctic Kara Sea following a drilling campaign near the 2014 Pobeda oil find.

• Pobeda and the two new discoveries make it possible to establish a new cluster for oil and gas production in the area, Rosneft said.

• The Pobeda find is assessed to be 130mn mt of oil and 422bn m3 of gas in size. Rosneft drilled into the field with US partner ExxonMobil, which was forced to exit the project later because of US sanctions.

KARACHAGANAK GROUP PAYS $1.3BN TO SETTLE KAZAKH DISPUTE

Shell, Italy's Eni and the other developers of Kazakhstan's giant Karachaganak gas and condensate field have paid $1.3bn to the Kazakh government to settle a protracted dispute over profit-sharing at the project, the Kazakh energy ministry reported on December 14. 

• Karachaganak is a Soviet-era discovery that was redeveloped as one of Kazakhstan's largest oil and gas projects.

• Kazakhstan first lodged its claim against KPO in 2015, complaining that it was not getting its fair share of profits from production. A settlement looked near in 2018, but a deal was not finalised until now.

CNPC SUBSIDIARY HITS PRODUCTION MILESTONE

PetroChina Southwest Oil and Gasfield Co has produced 30bn m3 of natural gas this year, its parent CNPC said, without offering yr/yr comparison.

• It is estimated that the natural gas output of PetroChina Southwest Oil and Gasfield Company will reach 31.6bn m3 this year, accounting for about a sixth of the national gas output.

• Gas production in China has increased at a relatively fast rate since 2016. The growth in output is well up on the sluggish increases in the first half of the 2010s, but still well below the increase in gas consumption.

DENMARK, GERMANY FORM GAS SUPPLY PACT

The Danish and German governments have signed a solidarity agreement, promising to provide each other with gas supplies in the event of a supply crisis, they announced.

• Denmark imports gas from Germany since closing down its largest gas field Tyra for a redevelopment programme in September last year.

• Germany in turn gets its gas primarily from Russia, Norway and the Netherlands.

JORDAN FINDS MORE GAS NEAR IRAQI BORDER

Jordan's energy minister Hala Zawati reported on December 13 that the drilling of well 53 at the Risha gas field near the border with Iraq had shown "promising results," noting it would become clear how much gas could be flowed from the borehole by the end of the year. 

• Jordan has been stepping up drilling work recently in its eastern desert area in the hope of finding enough gas to ease its reliance on imported fuels in the power sector.