Page 8 - Euroil Week 10 2020

EurOil PIPELINES & TRANSPORT EurOil
Transgaz pledges to ease up on gas exports
ROMANIA
A probe concluded that Romania may have restricted gas exports.
THE European Commission has accepted com- mitments made by Romanian state-owned gas transport company, Transgaz to export at least 1.7bn cubic metres (bcm) of natural gas to Hun- gary and 3.7 bcm to Bulgaria annually, local media reported on March 6.
The Commission announced a formal inves- tigation in June 2017 to assess whether Trans- gaz infringed EU antitrust rules by restricting exports of natural gas from Romania.
These restrictions may have maintained or created barriers to the cross-border flow of nat- ural gas from Romania, one of the EU’s largest natural gas producers, to Hungary and Bulgaria, contrary to the objective of an integrated Energy Union where energy flows freely across borders directed by competitive forces and based on the best possible use of resources.
Brussels assumed that Bucharest deliberately hampered the construction of interconnectors that would connect its gas network with the EU’s neigh- bors. Instead, Romania has focused on the construc- tion of pipeline to supply neighbouring Moldova to reduce its energy dependence on Russia.
EU Commissioner for Competition Mar- grethe Vestager said the agreement will promote
the free flow of gas at competitive prices in Southeast Europe and is a further step towards a single European energy market.
Hungary has made efforts to reduce its gas transport from Russia through the Friendship pipeline by establishing two-way interconnec- tors with Slovakia and Croatia and set up a com- pressor station necessary for the reverse flow of gas from Romania to Hungary in October. Hun- gary sees the facility as a major step toward the establishment of the BRUA (Bulgaria-Roma- nia-Hungary-Austria) energy corridor, which could improve Hungary’s energy supply.
The two-way flow of gas transport may start after the project is completed on the Romanian side, Hungarian officials said. The 1.75 bcm of gas equals roughly a sixth of Hungary’s annual 9 bcm consumption.
Transgaz has also committed to ensure that its tariff proposals to the Romanian national energy regulator (ANRE) will not discriminate between export and domestic tariffs in order to avoid interconnection tariffs that would make exports commercially unviable.
The commitments will remain in force until December 31, 2026. ™
POLICY
Equinor sees “positive” result from CCS well
NORWAY
The well has identified reservoirs that are “good candidates” for carbon storage.
NORWAY’S Equinor and its partners in the Northern Lights project are “positive” about the suitability of a site near the Troll field for storing captured carbon.
The group drilled a wildcat well 17.5 km south-east of Troll in the northern North Sea, to assess whether Lower Jurassic reservoir rocks were suitable for storing carbon dioxide (CO2). The Cook and Johansen formations at the site are “good candidates” for storage, the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) said in a state- ment on March 5.
“This is an important milestone in realising the possibility of CO2 storage on the Norwe- gian Continental Shelf [NCS],” Equinor’s senior vice-president for project development, Geir Tungesvik, said. “The preliminary results from the well so far have been positive. The drilling results will now be further analysed before concluding.”
Extensive data has been collected through coring, logging, sampling and a production test, Equinor said, noting its well had proved a seal- ing shale layer and the presence of good quality
sandstone in the reservoir.
Equinor is partnered with France’s Total and
Royal Dutch Shell in the Northern Lights pro- ject, which aims to establish a full-scale carbon capture and storage (CCS) chain in Norway by 2024. The carbon will be captured at onshore industrial sites, including a waste-to-energy plant in Oslo and a cement factory in Brevik. It will then be transported via pipeline to the North Sea for storage.
A final investment decision (FID) on the plan is anticipated in the spring of 2020, provided that an implementation agreement is reached with the government. If the project is sanctioned, the well near Troll will be used for injection and stor- age of CO2.
In September Equinor signed memoranda of understanding (MoUs) with European industrial companies Air Liquide, Arcelor Mittal, Ervia, Fortum, HeidelbergCement, Preem and Stockholm Exergi on co-oper- ating in the handling of CO2 at third-party premises and its transport to the North Sea for storage. ™
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