Page 4 - AsianOil Week 04 2021
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AsianOil ASIA-PACIFIC AsianOil
Panama Canal congestion
contributes to LNG price spike
PIPELINES & CONGESTION in the Panama Canal delaying The authority told Reuters that it had changed
TRANSPORT shipments of LNG from the US Gulf Coast to its transit reservation system on January 4 to ease
Asia is among the factors contributing to record- the bottleneck and allow LNG vessels to reserve
high spot prices for the super-chilled fuel in two slots 10-15 days ahead of transit, rather than
Northeast Asia. just one. It has also introduced auctions to sell
Other significant contributors include cold- off any slot that becomes available within 2-3
er-than-expected winter weather, a shortage days before transit owing to last-minute can-
of LNG carriers and supply outages at some cellations. On January 14, the authority said five
liquefaction plants around the world. The Pan- auctions had been conducted to date, and four
ama Canal congestion could last until March, slots awarded to LNG carriers.
according to traders cited by Reuters, and the A trip from the US to Asia via the Panama
weather is anticipated to start improving around Canal, which connects the Atlantic and Pacific
then too. This has already led to LNG spot prices oceans, can take around 15 days according to
for March delivery trading at less than half the Reuters. The alternative is to sail around the Cape
average price of cargoes due to be delivered in of Good Hope in South Africa, but that route
February. more than doubles journey time to around 38
The congestion comes despite the canal’s days. Given the higher costs of longer journeys,
regulator, the Panama Canal Authority, saying LNG vessels would be expected to avoid this
it had made changes designed to speed up tran- option. However, Energy Aspects has estimated
sit through the waterway. Reuters reported that that around one third of LNG carriers loading
LNG carriers had to wait for up to two weeks to from the US took the long route in December,
transit the canal in December, but that the wait illustrating how strong Asian demand for LNG
had now halved to one week. had become.
SOUTH ASIA
OIL launches seismic campaign
PROJECTS & STATE-OWNED Oil India Ltd (OIL) has campaign it would carry out further exploration
COMPANIES begun acquiring 2D and 3D seismic data at in Tripura to access the potential of this “gas pro-
an onshore block in the north-eastern state of lific area”.
Tripura. OIL’s latest efforts mark its first entry into the
Commenting on the geological charac- Tripura exploration scene, with the major having
teristics of the roughly 208-square km Block traditionally focused its upstream efforts in the
AA-ONHP-2018/5, OIL said the acreage was neighbouring state of Assam.
located in the Tripura-Cachar fold belt and was However, the Indian government has been
in “a border state of the country surrounded encouraging private and state, domestic and
on all sides by the deltaic basin of Bangladesh, foreign developers to expand their explora-
except for a small part in north-east which tion efforts. To this end, OIL announced in
adjoins the Cachar district of Assam and the October 2020 that it had launched a 2D seis-
state of Mizoram.” mic survey in two shallow-water blocks in the
OIL won the licence in the third Open Acre- Andaman Sea.
age Licensing Policy (OALP-III) bid round The company said at the time that it had
in 2019 and has committed to acquiring 200 deployed the multi-purpose seismic survey ves-
line-km of 2D seismic, 185 square km of 3D sel SW Vespucci to acquire 8,400 line-km of 2D
seismic and also to drilling six exploration wells. seismic data over blocks AN-OSHP-2018/1 and
However, the company has acknowledged AN-OSHP-2018/2. The company also won these
that there will be some challenges in developing in the OALP-III bid round.
the block, noting that it had “chalked out exten- OIL chairman and managing director Sushil
sive plans” for its exploration. Chandra Mishra said last year that his company
While OIL added that it was working on field planned to acquire 15,000 line-km of 2D data,
development plans in the neighbouring discov- 4,000 square km of 3D seismic data and drill 66
ered small field (DSF) block of Tulamara, it said wells on the 21 blocks it had won via OALP over
that based upon the success in its exploration the next three to four years.
P4 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 04 28•January•2021
