Page 9 - FSUOGM Week 28 2020

FSUOGM N R G FSUOGM
boosting cash ow. It is hard to see how re-en- tering Kazakhstan ts with its current strategy.
One rm deal to come out of Kazakhstan this month has been a $135mn construction con- tract awarded to the UK’s Petrofac, awarded by the consortium developing the giant Kashagan oil eld in the Caspian Sea.
If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping the former Soviet Union’s oil and gas sector then please click here for NewsBase’s FSU OGM Monitor.
LNG importers make moves
Progress is being made on various LNG import projects and initiatives globally, providing an industry that continues to struggle with over- supply with cause for optimism.
On July 9, a foundation-laying ceremony was held in Cyprus for a new LNG import terminal that is being hailed as the largest energy project ever undertaken by the country. e EUR289mn ($326mn) project is being built by a joint venture comprising China Petroleum Pipeline Engineer- ing, a subsidiary of China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC), and Greece’s Metron. Cypriot president Nicos Anastasiades is aiming to inau- gurate the terminal before his second and nal ve-year presidential term comes to an end in 2023.
In other LNG-importing countries, mean- while, efforts are under way to open up the industry to competition. It was reported last week that Singapore’s Energy Market Authority is seeking to appoint two new LNG term import- ers for the city-state, adding to the two it already has. e appointment is being sought in an e ort to boost competition and provide Singapore’s gas buyers with more options.
And in Brazil, state-owned Petrobras has pre-qualified 10 bidders for leasing its Bahia LNG import terminal and associated infrastruc- ture over the long term. e company is exit- ing natural gas distribution and transport and opening third-party access to its infrastructure under a 2019 agreement with Brazil’s anti-trust regulator.
No timeline has yet been issued for the next stage of the bidding process.
At the same time as these various moves are being made, though, the downturn continues to weigh on the LNG industry. According to Ref- initiv data, Latin American LNG imports this year so far have dropped to 6.7mn tonnes, down almost 38% from a year ago. Separately, Re nitiv showed that gas pipeline ows to US LNG export terminals had fallen to an average of 3.1bn cubic feet (87.8mn cubic metres) per day in the rst week of July from a 20-month low of 4.1 bcf (116.1 mcm) per day in June.
If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping the global LNG sector then please click here for NewsBase’s GLNG Monitor.
Latin America: US-Mexico ties
Ties between the US and Mexico have continued to make headlines over the last week.
Mexico saw crude oil exports to the US rise to 834,000 barrels per day (bpd), the highest num- ber reported since February 2012, last week. e uptick occurred because Pemex, the national oil company (NOC), was trying to cope with over- supply stemming from full inventories and a re at its largest re nery in late June. It also served to bring US net oil imports up to the highest level reported since August 2019.
In related news, Pemex has been instructed by Mexico’s Ministry of Energy (SENER) to hammer out a deal with Talos Energy (US), Win- tershall Dea (Germany) and Premier Oil (UK) on the unitisation of Zama, an o shore eld that is believed to hold 700mn barrels of oil. e com- panies now have 120 days to draw up and submit a Unitisation and Unit Operating Agreement (UUOA) to the ministry.
In other news, Brazil’s National Agency of Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels (ANP) is set to restart the open season for access to a pipe- line that carries natural gas from Bolivia to Brazil. is process had to be put on hold in late March, owing to uncertainty about gas demand in the face of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
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