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AsianOil
SOUTH ASIA AsianOil
The company has signed an agreement with the local government to drill 220 wells at a pro- jected cost of $1.83bn over five years.
“ONGC is giving impetus to increasing its production base in Assam in line with the government’s ambitious plan of reducing [the] country’s import dependency by 10% by 2022 and also in line with the North Eastern Hydro- carbon Vision 2030,” a company statement said.
The Assam projects are part of ONGC’s
“Energy Strategy 2040”, which envisages the completion of 27 projects over the next four years to the tune of $12.25bn.
The Indian government is spurring on state developers to invest more in local production as a means of countering a deepening reliance on foreign oil and gas supplies. Crude imports now account for more than 80% of the country’s demand, while gas imports make up around half of consumption.
SOUTHEAST ASIA
Pavilion targets Europe in bid to become global LNG trader
PROJECTS & COMPANIES
SINGAPORE-BASED Pavilion Energy is target- ing new markets in Europe as well as expanding in Asia as the gas importer and marketer aims to become a global trader of LNG.
Pavilion’s group CEO, Frederic Barnaud, told Reuters that the company was anticipating a turnover of $3bn next year, with its Europe portfolio comprising half of this amount while Singapore would account for the rest.
This follows Pavilion’s acquisition in June of the LNG assets of Spain’s Iberdrola, which doubled the company’s portfolio and gave it access to Atlantic supplies and European regasification terminals. In the wake of the acquisition, Pavilion is planning to open its European headquarters in Madrid in January 2020. The company is aiming to boost its global headcount to 150 by adding around 40-50 positions at its Madrid office.
According to Barnaud, the company will anchor its global LNG business around three markets – Singapore, Spain and the UK.
Pavilion is owned by Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund, Temasek Holdings. The company supplies one-third of Singapore’s downstream natural gas demand, and is seeking more
flexibility in where it buys and sells LNG in a changing market. US LNG is taking an increas- ingly larger share of the market, while a grow- ing focus on environmental goals is compelling more countries to consider switching from coal to natural gas for power generation and indus- trial use.
“We are not looking at extremely aggressive or taking excessive risk in the market; we are looking at being agile and reasonably balanced in our supply,” Barnaud said.
The company is intending to re-export LNG from Singapore to nearby countries, seeking to take advantage of the city-state’s geographical proximity to centres of Asian LNG demand such as Japan and South Korea.
According to Barnaud, the company is in talks with LNG terminal operator Singapore LNG (SLNG) to extend its storage lease, which is due to expire in March 2020. Pavilion has also indicated its interest in a potential fifth LNG storage tank that SLNG is considering building, he said. The tank space would allow the company to break up large cargoes of LNG into smaller ones for re-export.
Week 39 02•October•2019 w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m P5
