Page 19 - GLNG Week 31

GLNG MIDDLE EAST GLNG

Qatar picks Air Products

for LNG expansion tech

PROJECTS & QATAR Petroleum (QP) has picked Air Prod- LNG process trains in the world, satisfying our
COMPANIES ucts to supply gas liquefaction technology and customers’ desire to reduce capital cost per tonne
equipment for the first stage of its LNG expan- of LNG produced via economy of scale,” he said.
sion programme. “These immense AP-X units have a process
Air Products will provide its propriety AP-X production capacity that is 50% larger than any
technology for each of the four 7.8mn tonne other LNG train in operation and positions Air
per year (tpy) liquefaction trains that QP plans Products well for any customer requiring larger
to add at the North Field under the phase. The LNG process trains.”
US firm did not say how much the contract was The AP-X technology includes main cry-
worth. ogenic heat exchangers and subcooling heat
“The truest sign of a satisfied customer is one exchangers, and also covers Rotoflow turboma-
that comes back and places another order, and chinery companders and nitrogen economiser
Air Products is both pleased and proud that our cold boxes. The Rotoflow equipment division
premier technology was selected again for the focuses on seamless product development.
newest phase of this massive LNG expansion Air Products will construct the parts at its
project in Qatar,” Air Products’ chief operating plant in Florida, which recently underwent an
officer Samir Serhan said. expansion.
Air Products have provided technology for The first stage of North Field’s expansion,
all of Qatar’s 14 existing trains, the first of which known as North Field East (NFE), will raise
entered service in 1996. Qatar’s liquefaction to 110mn tpy by 2025. The
“Our AP-X liquefaction technology sets the second, known as North Field South (NFS), will
standard for the industry and offers the largest increase it to 126mn tpy by the late 2020s.™

Turkey’s Russian gas imports down,

Qatari and Azerbaijani imports up

PERFORMANCE TURKEY’S natural gas imports from Russia in diversifying external energy links and its boost-
May fell by almost 62% y/y while gas imports ing its leverage. Evening the playing field with
from Azerbaijan and Qatar grew by 14.5% Russia, to the extent that is possible, works in
y/y and 288% y/y, according to data from the Ankara’s favour too, given the complexity of the
country’s Energy Market Regulatory Authority relationship,” he said.
(EMRA) cited by Daily Sabah. Total gas imports EMRA said Azerbaijan was Turkey’s top gas
were down 0.5% y/y. supplier with 881mn cubic metres, followed
Natural gas imports in May stood at 2.67bn by Qatar and Russia with 520mn and 339mn,
Turkey imported more cubic metres (bcm), the data also reportedly respectively. Its data provided no mention of Iran
LNG than pipeline gas showed. as a gas supplier to Turkey. Iranian supplies came
in May. Demonstrating Turkey’s ongoing shift in to a halt when an explosion took a cross-border
favour of cheaper liquefied natural gas (LNG) pipeline out of service, with Tehran then com-
versus natural gas delivered by pipeline, the plaining to Ankara that it was dragging its feet
country imported 1.22bcm of natural gas via in getting the infrastructure repaired. Analysts
pipelines, while 1.45bcm were purchased as speculated Turkey was possibly using the situ-
LNG, the EMRA data revealed. This repre- ation to negotiate a better gas price from Iran.
sented a 44.6% drop in pipeline gas imports and Turkey’s total gas consumption decreased by
a 205.5% increase in LNG imports. 24.2% to approximately 2.24bcm in May from
“Cheaper gas for Turkey means extra leverage 2.95bcm in May last year, the figures also showed.
in negotiations with Russia,” Dimitar Bechev, an Household consumption of gas officially
analyst at the Middle East Institute (MEI), said in grew by 4.6% to 825mn cubic metres while the
an article published by the institute on its website use of natural gas in power plants was down by
at the end of last week. He added that Ankara 46.2% to 269mn cubic metres.
would surely try to extract better terms on gas The amount of natural gas in storage in May
contracts from the Russia. increased by 36% to 2.15bcm, from 1.58bcm a
“In a nutshell, Turkey is moving forward with year ago, according to EMRA.™

Week 31 07•August•2020 www. NEWSBASE .com P19