Daily Digest: February 20th, 2020

SHELL SEES BLEAK LNG OUTLOOK

Presenting its fourth and gloomiest annual outlook, senior executives at Anglo-Dutch major Shell said that new supply added 40mn metric tons (mt) to the market, a record amount; this year another 20mn mt are due to arrive and next year, another 10mn mt/yr.

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The Big Picture:

• This could be the year that sees liquefaction plants being shut in as supply fails to find demand at a price that makes sense for the producers.

• So far the demand has been there, but at ever-lower prices, and executive vice president for Shell Energy Steve Hill said that there was the potential for shut-ins this year.

• The oversupply of LNG had been forecast for some years; Shell expects demand to pick up and rebalance the market in the middle of the decade, depending on the timing of major projects such as the Qatari North Field expansion. 

WINTERSHALL DEA STARTS UP UK-DUTCH GAS FIELD

Germany's Wintershall Dea announced the start-up of the Sillimanite gas field straddling the border between the Dutch and UK North Seas.

The Big Picture:

• Wintershall Dea was formed through the merger last year of Wintershall and Dea.

• A final investment decision (FID) on Sillimanite was taken 16 months ago.

• Wintershall Noordzee plans to invest further in the southern North Sea, Dijkgraaf continued, where the company has a "diverse project pipeline." 

QATAR BOOKS FRENCH LNG IMPORT CAPACITY

Qatar Petroleum has booked LNG regasification capacity for "almost 3mn metric tons (about 4bn m³)/yr" in the French Atlantic terminal at Montoir, Engie said 

The Big Picture:

• Expiring in 2035, the contract follows last autumn's deal with Fluxys for capacity at Zeebrugge in Belgium and follows an open subscription period as required by the French energy regulator CRE.

• Qatar Petroleum CEO Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi said: “By signing this agreement, we are providing France, and Europe as a whole, reliable energy supplies, as well as increased utilisation of gas as a cleaner and more environmentally friendly source of energy." 

TC ENERGY EARNS NGTL EXPANSION APPROVAL

TC Energy on February 19 earned Canada Energy Regulator (CER) approval for a significant C$2.3bn (US$1.7bn) expansion of its Nova Gas Transmission Limited (NGTL) system in western Canada designed to reduce bottlenecks from the Montney shale gas play in northeastern BC and northwestern Alberta.

The Big Picture:

• In its application, NGTL said the expanded facilities would help move growing supply from the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin – expected to increase to 22.5bn ft3/day by 2030 from 15.8bn ft3/day in 2019 – to markets in western Canada and the US.

• NGTL expects to have the new facilities in service by the second quarter of 2021. 

 INPEX INKS ABADI LNG SUPPLY MOUS

Japan’s Inpex signed memoranda of understanding (MoUs) February 19 on long-term domestic LNG and piped gas supply from its Abadi LNG project in Indonesia, it said the following day in a statement. 

The Big Picture:

• Inpex owns a 65% stake in the Masela block while Shell holds the remaining 35% interest.

• The partners are preparing to start front-end engineering design (Feed) work at Abadi LNG, due to export up to 9.5mn mt/yr of LNG, in order to take a final investment decision. 

 AG&P BREAKS GROUND ON INDIA LNG IMPORT FACILITY

Singapore-based AG&P has broken ground on its LNG import facility at Karaikal Port, Puducherry, India, it said in a statement. The Karaikal LNG is expected to start commercial operations by Q4 2021. 

The Big Picture:

• Owned and operated by AG&P, Karaikal LNG is being built on a 12-hectare site within the Karaikal Port, which enjoys the only deep-water access on the east Coast of India south of Chennai, with all-weather capabilities and 24/7 operations, the company said

• Strategically located 280km south of Chennai and in close proximity to Tamil Nadu’s manufacturing clusters, the new terminal will provide natural gas to power plants, industrial and commercial customers within a 300 km radius.

PETRONAS SECOND FLNG VESSEL SETS SAIL FOR MALAYSIA

Petronas’ second floating LNG vessel, PFLNG Dua, has set sail to Rotan gas field, 140-km offshore Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, the company said February 19. The 1,840 nautical mile journey will take approximately two weeks to complete.

The Big Picture:

• “With its ability to reach remote deep-water gas reserves, the PFLNG Dua essentially opens up a new source of supply for cleaner energy in meeting the growing global demand, Petronas CEO of gas & new energy, Adnan Zainal Abidin said.

• The PFLNG Dua can produce 1.5mn metric tons/year of LNG, Petronas said.