Page 8 - GLNG Week 21 2021

GLNG AMERICAS GLNG

New Fortress seeks court review

of FERC’s Puerto Rico LNG decision

PROJECTS & NEW Fortress Energy has asked a federal appeals that the LNG plant is already in operation and
COMPANIES court to review a US Federal Energy Regulatory that the federal permitting process would require
Commission (FERC) decision asserting jurisdic- a lengthy federal review. The company requested
tion over the San Juan LNG terminal in Puerto a rehearing from the FERC, but this was effec-
Rico and requiring the company to apply for a tively denied recently when the regulator did not
permit for the facility. act on the request within the required timeframe,
The import terminal was commissioned in leading to New Fortress lodging a petition for
April 2020 and supplies LNG to industrial users review to the US Court of Appeals for the DC
and microgrids in Puerto Rico via trucks, as well Circuit on May 24.
as providing gas to two units of the adjacent San New Fortress and its main customer, the
Juan combined cycle power plant. Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA),
Two months after the LNG facility was have argued that disrupting operations at the
brought online, the FERC issued an order for LNG terminal would severely affect efforts
New Fortress to show why the facility was not to meet the island’s energy needs. The case is
subject to the regulator’s jurisdiction under Sec- also set to test the limits of the US regulator’s
tion 3 of the Natural Gas Act. The FERC subse- jurisdiction.
quently asserted its jurisdiction over the facility The FERC has not asked New Fortress to shut
in March 2021, ordering New Fortress to apply down the LNG plant while this issue is being
for a federal permit within six months. resolved, but there is uncertainty over what will
New Fortress is contesting this decision, given happen to the facility.™

ASIA

India’s oil, gas imports climb in April

PERFORMANCE INDIA’S oil and gas imports experienced a resur- India relies on foreign supplies of oil to meet
gence in April compared with the same month of more than 80% of demand, while gas imports
2020, owing to the comparative relaxation of the have come to account for more than half of con-
country’s social quarantine measures. sumption. However, a new wave of COVID-19
Crude deliveries climbed by 10.3% year on cases may send the country’s demand into a tem-
year to 18.26mn tonnes (4.46mn barrels per day) porary tailspin in the short term.
in April, according to data from the Petroleum While new daily case numbers have fallen
Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC) data. The from a high or more than 400,000 in early May to
PPAC is a division of the Ministry of Petroleum around 250,000 in recent days, there are growing
and Natural Gas. fears that a third wave is inevitable.
Imports of LNG, meanwhile, climbed by The Indian government’s principal scientific
45.2% y/y to the equivalent of 2.66bn cubic adviser, K VijayRaghavan, told a press confer-
metres of piped gas. ence on May 5 that the country’s high levels of
The bump in demand is the result of the the virus meant “a phase three is inevitable”. The
country’s economic recovery since the imple- situation has prompted state governments to
mentation of nationwide lockdowns in March impose their own lockdowns, with the indus-
2020 in response to the coronavirus (COVID- trialised state of Tamil Nadu having launched
19) pandemic. social quarantine measures on May 8 that are
The pandemic, coupled with a price spat anticipated to remain in place until at least May
between Russia and Saudi Arabia, saw oil 31.
prices collapse to multi-year lows in March Tamil Nadu, one of several states to impose
last year. As such, while oil import volumes lockdowns, saw its city gas demand drop by
climbed by 10.3%, the price of the deliveries 40-50% by May 11, an Indian gas aggregator
rose from $3bn in April 2020 to $8.5bn. At told S&P Global Platts at the time. This decline,
the same time, the cost of the country’s LNG replicated in other parts of the country, has
imports climbed to $800mn in April from already seen some LNG carriers diverted by gas
$300mn a year earlier. companies.™

P8 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 21 28•May•2021