Page 12 - FSUOGM Week 31

FSUOGM PIPELINES & TRANSPORT FSUOGM

Gazprom Neft joins international

LNG bunkering group

RUSSIA GAZPROM Neft announced on July 30 it had emissions.
become the first Russian oil firm to join the Soci- Gazprom Neft intends to add other LNG
Gazprom Neft plans ety for Gas Marine Fuel (SGMF), a group that bunkering vessels to its fleet in the coming years.
to have its own LNG seeks to promote the fuelling of ships with LNG. Besides the environmental benefits, using LNG
bunkering vessel in The state company is mostly focused on oil as a marine fuel is also commercially lucrative,
2021. production, but it also wants to build up its gas the company said.
business to serve as a hedge against oil market “Working with the international commu-
volatility. It has added motive now that Russia nity will allow us to join forces in develop-
and its OPEC+ allies have agreed to restrict oil ing LNG project infrastructure in Russia and
supply, preventing Gazprom Neft from advanc- abroad, fine-tuning standards and regulations,
ing new oil projects. and developing industry best practices in LNG
Gazprom Neft uses fuel oil and other production, logistics and bunkering,” the direc-
crude-based fuels to bunker ships at 37 ports tor-general of Gazprom Neft’s marine bunkering
worldwide, but it plans to bring its own LNG division, Alexei Medvedev, said in a statement.
bunkering into service in the second quarter of Gazprom Neft’s parent Gazprom also wants
2021. to move into LNG bunkering. It had intended to
The vessel, with a storage capacity of 5,800 launch its 1.5mn tonne per year (tpy) Portovaya
cubic metres, will provide ship-to-ship refuel- liquefaction plant on the Baltic Sea this year,
ling in the Baltic Sea, where LNG bunkering is which would serve as a bunkering hub, but it is
becoming increasingly popular. LNG is seen as yet to provide a firm start date. It has also com-
an attractive solution for ship owners to meet pleted a feasibility study on a similar project in
IMO 2020 rules on fuel pollution, as it produces Vladivostok in the Russian Far East, and is draft-
virtually no sulphur and 90% less nitrogen ing plans for another one on the Black Sea. ™

Russia overtakes US in

LNG supplies to China

CHINA RUSSIA continues to make inroads into Asian In June 2019, Russia exported 67,000 tonnes
LNG markets. The latest Chinese customs data of LNG to China, while the US exported none
Russia has quadrupled show that Russia supplied 396,000 tonnes of that month. The latest figures for Russian LNG
LNG exports since LNG to the Asian country in June, compared shipments to China show how dramatically
2009. with 340,000 tonnes arriving from the US. LNG trade between the two countries has grown
According to the customs data, Russia’s LNG over the past year.
exports to China surged by 20.7% on May fig- Overall, Russia has more than quadrupled its
ures, while US exports only rose 2.4% month on LNG exports since 2009 and is aggressively pur-
month. suing further expansion. Earlier in July, Russian
This is perhaps not surprising given that Minister of Energy Alexander Novak wrote in an
US exports of LNG to China had only recently article that new megaprojects could allow Russia
resumed, having been disrupted by the trade war to take up to 15% of the global LNG market by
between the two countries. Earlier this year, Bei- 2025. This compares with around 7% in 2019 –
jing started granting tariff waivers to buyers of and likely a higher figure in 2020.
US LNG in a bid to encourage them to increase Total Chinese imports of LNG also rose 29%
imports. year on year in June 2020, to 5.79mn tonnes. The
Data from the US Energy Information figure refutes previous projections that China’s
Administration (EIA) show that the country has June imports were set to fall from May levels
only been exporting LNG to China again since of 5.6mn tonnes. This comes after the early hit
March. Prior to this, the last time US LNG was China took from the coronavirus (COVID-19)
shipped to China was in February 2019. pandemic. ™

P12 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 31 05•August•2020