Page 11 - AsiaElec Week 18

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India’s LNG imports soar in March
INDIA
INDIA’S imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) soared 20.4% year on year in March to 2.87bn cubic metres, while production shrank by 14.4% to 2.41 bcm.
Imports for fiscal 2019-2020 climbed by 17.2% on the year to 33.68 bcm, according to Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell data pub- lished on April 28. Production for the 12 months slid 5% to 31.18 bcm,
Gas production has reportedly suffered after the country entered lockdown on March 24, with industrial users and retailers understood to have reduced purchases.
Indian newswire PTI said earlier this month that a growing number of state-run Oil and Nat- ural Gas Corp. (ONGC) and GAIL (India)’s cli- ents had asked for supplies either to be reduced or suspended completely. Industry sources told the newswire that ONGC’s sales had dropped from 50mn cubic metres per day to 40 mcm since the start of the lockdown, while GAIL’s sales had plunged from 115-120 mcm per day to 76 mcm per day.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to review the country’s quarantine measures on May 3, after its original deadline was extended
from April 14. The business community has begun pressing New Delhi to ease restrictions, and the government has softened some of its measures. For example, the government has cleared the way for state authorities to begin overseeing interstate travel by those looking to return their primary residences.
The Ministry of Home Affairs has said move- ment between states will be regulated by local officials, who will need to conduct screening at both ends of the journey and enforce quaran- tines where necessary.
Energy consultancy Wood Mackenzie said on April 14 that the government’s decision to extend the lockdown had hurt demand and that the outlook for LNG demand was weak.
Wood Mackenzie’s Asia-Pacific vice-chair, Gavin Thompson, said: “India’s gas demand has been severely affected, primarily across the transport and industrial sectors. As a notoriously price-sensitive market, low oil prices are also a competitive threat to gas. High inventories are resulting in refiners further reducing margins for oil products to compete with gas, leading to downside risk on the LNG demand outlook.”™
Australian regulator approves Ichthys LNG subsea work
AUSTRALIA
AUSTRALIA’S National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Author- ity (NOPSEMA) has approved Inpex’s plan for subsea modifications to the Ichthys LNG project.
Under Japan-based Inpex’s plan, which was submitted for regulatory approval last month, new infrastructure will be built to connect roughly 15 new wells in the offshore Browse Basin to the liquefaction terminal. The subsea production system will be expanded through the addition of a new gathering system, as well as infrastructure to connect the new wells to the existing gathering system.
The scope of works approved includes the installation, mechanical completion, pre-com- missioning and commissioning of umbilicals, risers and flowlines (URF), as well as the connec- tion of this infrastructure to the project’s existing subsea and offshore facilities.
The new infrastructure will be installed in petroleum production licence WA-50-L, which is located roughly 230 km north-west of the Kimberley coastline, over a period of five years.
Work is anticipated to begin in the first quarter of 2021, though the timing could be affected by approvals, vessel availability, operational effi- ciencies and weather conditions.
There may also be delays to the project timeline, after Inpex said last month that it was reviewing its investment plans in order to min- imise the impact of the oil price collapse and coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The com- pany has not yet provided further details on how it will proceed with its investment plans. A hand- ful of other companies that operate LNG export terminals in Australia have announced delays to final investment decisions (FIDs) on expansion phases at their projects, however.
Ichthys LNG currently has the capacity to produce 8.9mn tonnes per year (tpy) of LNG from two liquefaction trains, as well as 100,000 barrels per day (bpd) of condensate and 1.65mn tpy of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG).
Roughly 70% of the LNG produced at the facility is set to be sold to Japanese customers.™
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