Page 8 - Euroil Week 37 2019
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Spanish LNG imports surge on demand spike
SPAIN
French imports were also up because of a larger price differential between the two countries.
SPANISH saw imports of LNG and piped gas from France surge in August, on the back of strong demand, according to data published by Spanish gas grid operator Enagas on September 13.
Spain has seen gas demand soar this year as a result of warmer weather and reduced supply of coal-fired electricity and hydropower. LNG imports have also been buoyed by expanding global supply and weaker demand in Asia.
Spain’s LNG imports surged by 86.4% year on year to 26.1 TWh in August, with shipments from Russia, Qatar and Nigeria all rising. Qatar was the country’s largest LNG supplier during the month, boosting deliveries by 129% y/y to 7.3 TWh. Russian supplies stayed firm at 5.4 TWh, while Nigerian cargoes came in at 4.9 TWh.
By contrast, US LNG imports slumped to 0.98 TWh, after seeing record levels in the first half of the year. Other volumes came from Trinidad & Tobago(2.6TWh),Belgium(2.1TWh),Angola
(1 TWh), Algeria (0.995 TWh) and Norway (0.869 TWh).
Meanwhile, piped French supplies to Spain soared to 4.5 TWh, up from 2.3 TWh a year ear- lier, because of a larger price differential between the two countries, as well as demand growth. French gas took market share away from Alge- ria, which saw piped volumes slump 46.4% to 7.4 TWh.
Demand for gas in Spanish power gener- ation has increased by 95% so far this year to 73.1 TWh, driving up national consumption by 16% to a new height of 263.1 TWh. A key fac- tor behind this growth has been record summer temperatures, which have resulted in greater use of air-conditioning systems in Spain this year. The heat wave also led to lower water levels at hydroelectric dams. In addition, Enagas has attributed greater gas use to Spain’s ongoing drive to phase out coal as well as its strong industrial performance.
Bulgaria supreme court ends case halting TurkStream advance
BULGARIA
Gazprom wants to launch TurkStream’s European leg next year.
BULGARIA’S Supreme Administrative Court has ended a case launched based on objections to the selection of a consortium comprising Saudi Arabia’s Arkad Engineering and Construction and Italy-registered Arkad ABB to build the Turkish Stream extension in the country.
The objection had halted the launch of the project, but was withdrawn by one of the compa- nies in the GRRB Consortium Gas Development and Expansion in Bulgaria (GRRB).
Bulgaria’s state-owned gas network operator Bulgartransgaz initially picked Arkad as the first- ranked bidder, but in May decided to replace it with GRRB, claiming that the winner had failed to provide the necessary documents to sign the contract in time.
In June, the competition watchdog ruled that the contract should be awarded to Arkad as Bul- gartransgaz’s decision to replace it with GRRB broke the law and the contract must be signed with the winner of the tender.
Arkad won the tender to build the 484 km pipeline in April, as it offered a price of €1.29bn to complete the project within 250 days, or €1.10bn should the deadline be extended to 615 days.
Gazprom has determined the itinerary of the second line of the Turkish Stream pipeline will span Bulgaria and Serbia starting from 2020,
then go through Hungary and Slovakia starting from 2021 and the second half of 2022, respec- tively. According to Bulgarian Energy Minister Temenuzhka Petkova, the country will spend €1.4bn ($1.59bn) to build the new gas link to Turkey to transport Russian gas from the Turk- ish Stream pipeline.
At the end of January, Bulgartransgaz announced it had successfully completed the third market test for Turkish Stream with the full capacity of the future pipeline being booked by companies, and will move forward with plans to join the project.
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Week 37 19•September•2019
