Page 9 - MEOG Week 41

MEOG NRG MEOG

But Hochstein’s comments – and the resignation sector continues to grapple with oversupply that
of Ukraine’s central bank governor Yakiv Smolii buyers are struggling to absorb. Despite this,
in July over what he said was “sustained political though, various companies are continuing to
pressure” – suggest otherwise. move towards the approval of new liquefaction
Meanwhile, Poland’s competition watchdog capacity.
UOKiK said on October 7 it had fined the Rus- Notably, last week US-based NextDecade
sian gas supplier Gazprom PLN29bn ($7.6bn) announced that it would target carbon neutral-
for going ahead with Nord Stream 2 without its ity at its proposed Rio Grande LNG terminal,
consent. Gazprom’s financing agreements with on which a final investment decision (FID) is
its European partners effectively established targeted for 2021. NextDecade said it would use
a de-facto joint venture, the regulator argues, a combination of carbon capture and storage
meaning its approval was needed because of the (CCS) and “proprietary processes” to achieve
pipeline’s impact on the Polish gas market. carbon neutrality at the 27mn tonne per year
Gazprom has vowed to appeal against the (tpy) Rio Grande facility.
decision, setting Poland and Russia on a course
for an arbitration dispute that could last years. If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping
the global LNG sector then please click here for
If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping NewsBase’s GLNG Monitor.
the former Soviet Union’s oil and gas sector then please
click here for NewsBase’s FSU Monitor. Latin America: Permian gas to Mexico
This week’s LatAmOil examines Mexico’s grow-
GLNG: Outages and new plans ing importance as a market for unconventional
Equinor’s Melkoeya LNG terminal in Hammer- and associated gas from the US Permian Basin.
fest, Norway is expected to resume output on New pipelines are already benefiting CFE, the
January 1, 2021, having gone offline after it was national power provider, by pumping more gas
damaged in a fire last month, the company said to the Mexican domestic markets, and they will
in a regulatory statement on October 12. The fire also support the establishment of new export
occurred in one of the plant’s electricity-gener- facilities capable of serving Asian and South
ating turbines on September 28 and was extin- American markets.
guished the same day. In related news, industry experts believe
This is one of several LNG facilities globally that Mexico’s government may have launched
to be dealing with an unplanned outage recently. its annual oil hedging deal. Details are scarce,
One of the most notable is Chevron’s Gorgon though, as Mexican officials are working hard
LNG terminal in Australia, where one train to keep information about the hedge secret this
remains offline while cracks in propane heat year.
exchangers are being repaired. The other two Further south, Ecuador’s government is hop-
Gorgon trains are scheduled to go offline next ing to sign another oil-backed loan deal with
year – though not both at the same time – and China in November. According to Rene Ortiz,
will be inspected for similar weld quality issues the Minister of Energy and Non-Renewable
to the ones that required repairs in Train 2. Natural Resources, Quito intends to use the pro-
In the US, meanwhile, Cameron LNG had ceeds of the $1.4bn credit to restructure some of
only just resumed exports, having been shut its existing debts.
down by Hurricane Laura in late August only to In Guyana, ExxonMobil (US) has extended
go offline again as Hurricane Delta made land- its contract with Noble Corp. (UK) for the use of
fall on the Louisiana coast. But operator Sempra a drillship known as the Noble Tom Madden at
Energy reported on October 12 that it had sus- the Stabroek block offshore Guyana. The exten-
tained no damage from the latest storm, adding sion, which pushes the end date of the contract
that it had been determined that it was safe to back from mid-February of 2024 to mid-August
restart production at the plant. of 2030, follows closely on the heels of the US
These outages may actually be viewed as wel- super-major’s decision to proceed with develop-
come by the LNG industry more broadly, as the ment work at Payara.

Week 41 14•October•2020 www. NEWSBASE .com P9