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Woodside wins Australia’s first ship- to-ship LNG bunkering licences
PIPELINES & TRANSPORT
THE Pilbara Port Authority (PPA) has issued Australia’s first ship-to-ship LNG bunkering licences to Woodside Petroleum.
The PPA and Woodside have executed non-exclusive licences to provide ship-to-ship LNG bunkering services at the Western Austral- ian ports of Port Hedland and Dampier, LNG Marine Fuel Institute (LNG MFI) CEO Margot Matthews said on May 5.
PPA’s general manager of development and trade, Lyle Banks, said: “Western Australia is well placed to become an LNG bunkering hub, with LNG production facilities close to large iron ore mining operations and the many hundreds of ocean-going vessels that use ports in the Pilbara region.”
He added that in addition to the two Woodside licences, PPA had only awarded one other LNG bunkering contract in the Pilbara. PPA awarded a truck-to-ship LNG bunker- ing licence to Evol LNG in early 2017, paving the way for Australia and the southern hemi- sphere’s first ever LNG bunkering operation to
take place in January 23.
Under an agreement with Woodside, service
provider EVOL LNG successfully refuelled a marine support vessel at King Bay Supply Base near the Port of Dampier.
Woodside’s executive vice-president of mar- keting, trading and shipping Reinhardt Matisons described the finalisation of the most recent bun- kering licences “as a key step in developing an LNG fuels industry” in WA.
He added: “Woodside is finalising plans for an LNG bunkering operation in the Pilbara to capture the significant environmental and eco- nomic benefits of using LNG, instead of fuel oil, for the busy iron ore shipping trade.”
There is growing demand for LNG bunker- ing facilities, as the global shipping industry turns towards the fuel as a cleaner alternative to fuel oil. The International Maritime Organ- ization’s (IMO) new emissions standards for marine fuels came into force on January 1, requiring ships to cap sulphur content in their fuel to 0.5%.
Total reports 27% increase in LNG sales
PERFORMANCE
FRANCE’S Total announced as part of its first-quarter results for 2020 that its LNG sales had increased by 27% year on year. The com- pany reported sales of 9.8mn tonnes of LNG in the first quarter of 2020, compared with 7.7mn tonnes a year ago. However, the latest figure marked a sequential decline from 10.6mn tonnes in the fourth quarter of 2020, in a potential sign of a looming slowdown.
Total’s results showed that sales from the company’s equity production rose both y/y and sequentially, reaching 4.7mn tonnes, up from 3.8mn tonnes in the first quarter of 2019 and 4.2mn tonnes in the fourth quarter. This equity production can be sold by Total or its joint ven- ture partners, the company noted. Meanwhile, sales by Total alone, including both from equity production and from third-party purchases, rose 30% y/y from 6.0mn tonnes to 7.8mn tonnes, but fell sequentially from 9.6mn tonnes.
The French company attributed the y/y increase in its sales to the ramp-up of produc- tion at Russia’s Yamal LNG and Australia’s
Ichthys LNG, as well as the start-up of the first two trains at Cameron LNG in the US. Its LNG production rose 7% y/y, Total said, adding that this was “essentially” linked to the ramp-ups at Yamal and Ichthys.
Resilient sales prices for LNG and the increased use of regasification capacity in Europe, as well as the “strong performance of trading activities” also contributed to the rise in LNG sales, the company added.
Despite the first-quarter growth in LNG production and sales, however, Total warned of challenges ahead as the market remains over- supplied with the super-chilled fuel in the face of depressed demand. The company noted that it anticipated deferments in uplifts of LNG during the second and third quarters of 2020, adding that the oil price decline would negatively affect long-term LNG contract prices from the second half of the year.
Total’s CEO, Patrick Pouyanne, said the com- pany was considering cancelling some LNG cargoes in the summer in order to limit losses.
EUROPE
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w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m Week 18 08•May•2020
