Page 8 - AfrOil Week 03 2021

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This was the plant’s capacity before it was dam- country’s coalition government, established last
aged during the ISIS invasion and occupa- summer and consisting of 12 Green Party mem-
tion beginning in 2014, and again when it was bers, later withdrew the 5 bcm per year Shannon
retaken by Iraqi government troops in 2015. LNG import facility from a shortlist of projects
eligible for EU grants. The fate of that project also
If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping looks sealed, after the High Court in Ireland in
the downstream sector of Africa and the Middle East, November ruled to annul all its development
then please click here for NewsBase’s DMEA Monitor. consents.
The UK’s Predator Oil & Gas is also advanc-
EurOil: TechnipFMC split back on track ing an FSRU project in Ireland but has insisted it
Franco-American oil services group Technip- will not take shale gas supply because of its envi-
FMC revealed earlier this month that it was ronmental impact.
resuming plans to split itself into two independ-
ent companies. If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping
TechnipFMC, formed four years ago through Europe’s oil and gas sector then please click here for
the merger of Technip and FMC, launched plans NewsBase’s EurOil Monitor.
to separate its engineering and construction
activities from its oil services and technology FSU OGM: Nord Stream 2 sanctions
business in August 2019. But it put the process Swiss-based Zurich Insurance Group will with-
on hold in March last year because of the market draw from Russia’s Nord Stream 2 pipeline,
turmoil created by the coronavirus (COVID-19) sources told Reuters on January 16, as the US
pandemic. prepares to slap stricter sanctions on the project.
Work on the separation is once again under- Washington is set to expand its sanctions
way and should be completed in the first quarter regime against the near-complete project within
of this year, TechnipFMC said in a statement on weeks, after both houses of US Congress over- The US wants
January 7. Technology and services will remain rode a Trump veto of a defence bill containing
under the TechnipFMC name, while the newly the measures. Current sanctions only target to punish
formed Technip Energies will handle engineer- those companies providing pipelaying vessels for
ing and construction. Nord Stream 2, but the US wants to punish those companies
Existing shareholders will receive 50.1% of providing technical certification and insurance,
stock in Technip Energies on a pro-rata basis. as well as other construction activities such as providing
TechnipFMC will retain the rest, which it intends surveying, trenching and rock replacement. technical
to divest “over time.” BpiFrance, already a major The US State Department earlier this month
investor in TechnipFMC, will become a signif- warned European companies suspected of certification and
icant shareholder in Technip Energies through assisting the project to pull out before it was too
a $200mn investment. The new business will be late. Zurich has extensive operations in the US, insurance for
listed on the Euronext Paris bourse in France. meaning that it is greatly exposed to asset sei-
Meanwhile in Ireland, prospects for LNG zures and other potential sanctions measures. It Nord Stream 2
imports have dimmed further after a prelim- is one of around 20 insurers that is supporting
inary deal between US exporter NextDecade Nord Stream 2, according to Reuters.
and the port of Cork for a floating storage and Over in Ukraine, the government is planning
regasification unit (FSRU) expired at the end of to cap gas prices for households in a move that
last year. Doubts about the 4bn cubic metre per may further jeopardise the country’s co-op-
year project have been growing for years, amid eration with the IMF, Bloomberg reported on
Irish authorities’ increasing aversion to the use January 13. Kyiv is taking the step to protect
of fossil fuels. household finances at a time when the economy
The Cork terminal is the second planned is reeling from the impact of the coronavirus
LNG import project in Ireland to be axed. The (COVID-19) pandemic.

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