Page 14 - GLNG Week 25

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delays have been driven by monsoon rains and elections, he said.
H-Energy is also reported to be working on a 635-km link from Jaigarh to Mangalore. is will be ready in 2023. Work has been slower than expected. e company is also working on an FSRU in Andhra Pradesh, on the east coast of India. A contract for this should be awarded by the end of the year.
Bidders line up for Bangladesh regas plan
Twelve bidders have expressed an interest
in building Bangladesh’s rst onshore regas terminal. one such party is a joint venture of ExxonMobil and Qatar Petroleum, Reuters reported, quoting o cial documents. other interested groups include Shell, Total, Samsung and major Japanese trading houses.
Rupantarita Prakritik Gas Co. requested expressions of interest (EoI) from potential developers for a regas terminal at Matarbari, in Cox’s Bazar. e plan is for a plant to handle 7.5 million tpy of LNG.
Rising importance of China to Australia
China may become the top consumer of Australian LNG this year, Montel has cited Commonwealth Bank’s commodities analyst, Vivek dhar, as saying. is would see it overtake Japan.
China has had to seek alternative sources of supply amid a trade war with the US. Beijing has been eager to consume more gas in a bid to control pollution.
dhar said the long-term contracts would appear to see Japan on top, but this ignored spot deals. “China’s buying of spot LNG may be enough to eclipse Japan regardless of seasonal demand. at opens the door for China to overtake Japan consistently as Australia’s largest buyer of LNG.”
Australia now produces more than 80
million tpy of LNG and has overtaken Qatar, for the time being.
austRaLasia
Japan, US, Australia compete for PNG financing
Japan, the US and Australia are planning
to provide US$1 billion in nancing to
an LNG project in Papua New Guinea, Nikkei reported. e plan is for the three government-backed lenders - Japan Bank for International Cooperation, the US overseas Private Investment Corp. and Australia’s Export Finance and Insurance Corp. – to provide the lending in order to o er an alternative to China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
Talks were held in Port Moresby, in April, with the PNG government. Plans should be nalised over the next two to three years. Support could also be available for power plants and communications infrastructure.
PNG probe into O’Neill borrowing
Papua New Guinea Prime Minister James Marape has launched a commission to investigate a US$1.2bn loan taken out by his predecessor. is follows the publishing of a report from the ombudsman, which found Peter o’Neill, the previous prime minister, had taken a number of “wrong and improper” steps, including failing to ask parliament about the loan.
e Guardian reported that o’Neill decided to purchase shares in oil Search without approval from the national executive committee and that he had misled the committee about the loan needed to buy the shares. e report went on to nd nine people had “failed to comply with the proper process and procedures” in borrowing the cash from
the Australian branch of UBS, in 2014. PNG had to sell its shares at a loss as
commodity prices slumped.
Greater Sunrise considers Exim Bank support
Timor Gap is on the verge of signing an
A$11 billion deal with China’s Exim Bank on the funding of an onshore LNG plant, port and pipeline from the Greater Sunrise area. e Australian reported this, based on an unnamed source. An FId may not come until 2022.
Timor Gap, East Timor’s state-owned natural gas company, has denied the report, saying it is in talks with a number of potential lenders, including China, the US and Australia.
Australia and East Timor reached a deal on de ning their maritime borders in 2018, a necessary step before Greater Sunrise could be developed. A number of companies involved in the project have sold out their stakes, though, seemingly worried about
the economics of developing a plant in East Timor.
Pluto restarts
Further to the ASX announcement dated
11 June 2019, Woodside advises that it has successfully completed additional work at Pluto LNG and has restarted LNG production.
Earlier in June, Woodside had said the Pluto LNG turnaround was completed as planned but the mixed refrigerant compressor had experienced vibration on restart. As
a result, further activities extending the turnaround have commenced to achieve the restart of production, targeted for the end of June 2019.
Woodside has made arrangements to meet obligations to our customers, including the purchase of third party cargoes. Woodside appreciates the support of our foundation customers and joint venturers. due to the turnaround extension, Woodside’s 2019 production is expected to be at the lower end of the 88-94 MMboe guidance range. WooDsiDE EnERGy, june 25, 2019
EuRoPE
Novatek seeks Gydan driller
Russian gas supplier Novatek is seeking a contractor to drill and test a well at a gas block
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Week 25 27•June•2019