Page 18 - EurOil Week 32

EurOil PROJECTS & COMPANIES EurOil

Petrofac to develop low-carbon

projects with Storegga

UK UK-BASED oilfield services provider Petrofac Petrofac was hired by Pale Blue Dot for engi-
has joined forces with clean energy developer neering and project management office support
Petrofac also won a Storegga Geotechnologies to advance low-car- at the Acorn CCS scheme in June. The project is
$100mn contract in bon projects, the companies said on August 6. backed by oil and gas producer Chrysaor, Royal
Azerbaijan via its joint The pair have signed a memorandum of Dutch Shell and France’s Total.
venture with SOCAR. understanding (MoU) on collaborating on Petrofac also announced on August 10 it
potential business development and project had secured a five-year contract worth $100mn
initiatives in carbon capture and storage (CCS), to provide international payroll and personal
hydrogen and other low-carbon technologies, support services to BP in Azerbaijan. It won the
they said. deal through a joint venture with Azerbaijan’s
“With an initial focus on the UK Continental national oil company (NOC) SOCAR. The con-
Shelf [UKCS] and North West Europe, the MoU tract includes support for the company’s person-
also includes scope for the parties to work together nel attending training courses both inside and
international[ly],” a joint statement read. outside Azerbaijan.
Storegga serves as a holding company for Pale Petrofac and SOCAR were awarded another
Blue Dot, which aims to establish blue hydrogen contract in Azerbaijan a year ago to provide engi-
production in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, starting neering and technical services at the Absheron
in 2024. The Acorn project, as it is known, will gas field in the Caspian Sea. The UK firm also
produce hydrogen from North Sea gas arriving won a $135mn construction deal for a water
at the St Fergus terminal. The carbon produced treatment facility at the Kashagan oil project in
from the process will be captured and stored in neighbouring Kazakhstan last month, through a
depleted offshore oil and gas reservoirs. joint venture with local group Isker. ™

Uniper earnings soar in H1

GERMANY THE adjusted operating profits of Germany’s might consider divesting Unipro to align itself
Uniper more than doubled in the first half of the with the lower-carbon priorities of its parent
The German gas and year, reaching €691mn ($812mn), on the back company Fortum. He simply said that Russia was
power of strong gas business performance and capacity a signatory to the Paris Agreement, and it was up
market payments in the UK. to Moscow to decide how to deliver on its goals.
The gas and power group also raised its guidance Over in Germany, the upper and lower
for full-year earnings to between €800mn and €1bn, houses of parliament have approved legislation
versus a March forecast of €750mn to €1bn. on the country’s phase-out of coal-fired power,
Uniper posted an adjusted net income of Uniper said, but more approvals are needed,
€572mn, which is nearly three times more than including at an EU level.
a year earlier. It has increased its prediction for Germany’s decommissioning of coal and
2020 net income to €600-800mn, from €750 mil- nuclear power plants is expected to provide
lion to €550-800mn. opportunities to gas suppliers to increase their
“Despite COVID-19, our key performance share of the energy mix, alongside renewable
indicators are right on schedule, enabling us energy producers. Uniper also reaffirmed its
to make our forecasts for full-year 2020 more commitment to becoming carbon-neutral by
precise and to raise the midpoint of the forecast 2035. It pointed to recent partnerships it had
range slightly,” CEO Andreas Schierenbeck said. forged with companies like Siemens Gas and
Regarding Uniper’s European generation busi- Power and General Electric to develop hydrogen
ness, hydro and nuclear power stations produced energy as part of this strategy.
less electricity but sold their output for more. The firm also warned that it might have to
Earnings at its Russian division Unipro slumped, book an impairment on a loan provided to Rus-
because of weaker day-ahead demand from oil and sia’s Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project, in light
gas companies, which depressed prices. of the threat of US sanctions.
Uniper also said it had pushed back the relaunch “Pressure has further intensified,” Schieren-
of the Beryozovskaya-3 coal-fired unit in Russia beck said. “The worst case would be, of course,
until the first half of 2021, because of COVID-19 if [Nord Stream 2] would never be finished and
restrictions and other factors. As a whole, though, then, of course, the question is can we get our
Uniper’s Russian business performed well, generat- money back or not,” he said. But he noted that
ing a third of the company’s income. his expectation was that the pipeline would get
Schierenbeck declined to say whether Uniper completed. ™

P18 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 32 12•August•2020