Page 7 - NorthAmOil Week 03 2021

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is reeling from the impact of the coronavirus future term supply at volumes, pricing and dura-
pandemic. But Ukraine’s lenders are concerned tions of their choosing through competitive
that the government is backtracking on reform. bidding”.
This approach illustrates the growing flexi-
If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping bility in the LNG market and Commonwealth,
the former Soviet Union’s oil and gas sector then please with support from Gunvor Group, hopes that
click here for NewsBase’s FSU Monitor . it will win over customers more easily than its
competitors thanks to the variety of options it
GLNG: Transit bottlenecks, project pro- has on offer.
gress
Congestion delaying LNG shipments from the If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping
US to Asia via the Panama Canal is expected to the global LNG sector then please click here for
last for the duration of the winter months, when NewsBase’s GLNG Monitor .
demand peaks, according to traders cited by
Reuters. This comes despite the canal’s regulator Latin America: Mixed results in
saying it had made changes designed to speed up Guyana-Suriname basin
transit through the waterway. Offshore South America, the Guyana-Suriname
The bottleneck is contributing to record- basin continues to draw strong interest – and
high Asian spot prices, alongside freezing win- mixed results.
ter weather and some supply outages. Reuters In Guyana, the US super-major ExxonMobil
reported that LNG carriers had to wait for up has reportedly experienced a disappointment at
to two weeks to transit the canal in December. the Stabroek block.
However, the canal’s regulatory authority told A spokeswoman for the company’s Guya-
the news service that the wait had now halved to nese subsidiary told OilNOW earlier this week
one week. Analysts and traders expect the con- that the Hassa-1 well had not encountered any
gestion to last until March. hydrocarbons in the primary target intervals.
Meanwhile, certain LNG developers are She also stated that there had been hydrocarbon
showing signs of confidence in longer-term shows in other intervals but did not provide fur-
demand for the super-chilled fuel. Last week, ther details.
Tellurian’s co-founder and executive chairman, “This serves as a reminder that geologic risk
Charif Souki, said his company was targeting is inherent to frontier oil and gas exploration
this summer to begin construction of the Drift- activities,” the spokeswoman remarked. “None-
wood LNG terminal in Louisiana. (See: Tellurian theless, ExxonMobil remains committed to
hopes to start Driftwood construction this sum- evaluating the potential in our offshore Guyana
mer, page 15) blocks using our world-class technology and
“There is a strong need for additional lique- technical capabilities.”
faction capacity and we’re probably the project The US giant and its partners have already
that is the closest to starting construction,” he discovered crude oil in more than a dozen sec-
said. A final investment decision (FID) has not tions of Stabroek. They have estimated the recov-
yet been reached on Driftwood, but Souki said erable reserves of the block at around 9bn boe.
the level of customer interest in offtake from the Meanwhile, France’s Total has had better luck
project had increased “pretty dramatically” over in Suriname’s offshore zone.
the past month. The French company and its US-based
Separately, a tender was launched this week partner Apache revealed last week that they
for offtake from the planned 8.4mn tonne per had struck oil at Block 58. In a statement, Total
year (tpy) Commonwealth LNG project, also in reported that the Keskesi-1 well had encoun-
Louisiana. (See: Commonwealth LNG tries new tered “63 metres net pay of hydrocarbons, com-
approach to contracting, page 11) The company prised of 58 metres net black oil, volatile oil,
noted that this is “the first ever tender process and gas pay in good quality Campano-Maas-
in which prospective LNG customers can secure trichtian reservoirs, along with 5 metres of net

Week 03 21•January•2021 www. NEWSBASE .com P7