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GCL restructures LNG, gas business

PROJECTS & HONG Kong-based Golden Concord Holdings capital and integrating the entire gas value chain,
COMPANIES Ltd (GCL) has launched a strategic restructuring GCL hopes to supply high-quality gas to its sev-
of its LNG and gas businesses, the company has eral power plants and other industrial users
said. The group has established a new company, across China.
GCL Natural Gas, and appointed H. Sterling Group At the same time, GCL has wrapped up
chairman Eric Wang as the new entity’s chair. exploration of its overseas oil and gas assets and
“GCL Natural Gas will integrate GCL’s is now shifting its focus to production.
existing overseas natural gas exploration and As for its downstream activities, the
development, its three LNG terminals in Yan- National Development and Reform Commis-
tai, Rudong and Maoming [in] China, and H. sion (NDRC) approved the Yantai LNG termi-
Sterling Group’s natural gas investments and nal in January, and the project is set to be one
international gas-to-power projects to develop of China’s largest LNG terminals, the company
LNG value chain to synthesise the exploration told NewsBase.
and production, liquefaction, transport, storage, “The Rudong and Maoming LNG terminals
trade and marketing of natural gas, working to are awaiting NDRC approval before the end of
make GCL Natural Gas a key player in the Chi- this year. H. Sterling, as a partner and co-investor
nese gas market,” the company said in a state- of some GCL projects, has established close ties
ment emailed to NewsBase. with a number of large international gas compa-
GCL has interests around the world and, nies and made significant headway in securing
amongst other things, is a leader in solar pho- downstream customers in the project region,”
tovoltaic (PV) power, gas-fired power genera- the company said.
tion and smart-grid technology in China. The This is not first project where GCL has
National Energy Administration (NEA) ranked co-operated with H. Sterling. The partners are
the company near the top of the list of “Global also developing and investing in gas-fired power
Top 500 New Energy Enterprises” for 2019. projects in a number of countries across Asia and
The company says that by streamlining insti- Africa, with a combined capacity approaching
tutions, increasing efficiency, consolidating 2,000 MW.™

OCEANIA

Ampol sinks to first-half loss

PERFORMANCE AUSTRALIAN refiner and fuel retailer Ampol The company noted that its Lytton refin-
recorded a loss in the first half of 2020 as the ery had racked up a pre-tax loss of AUD59mn
COVID-19 pandemic wreaked havoc on interna- ($42.9mn) in the six-month period, compared
tional oil prices and domestic fuel demand alike. with a pre-tax profit AUD1mn ($728,000) in the
Ampol recorded a first-half loss of AUD626mn same period of 2019.
($456.1mn) on August 25, down from a Ampol said the 109,000 barrel per day (bpd)
AUD155mn ($112.9mn) net profit a year earlier. facility’s performance “was reflective of the
The company’s underlying profit, meanwhile, extremely weak external refiner margin environ-
slipped 11% to AUD120mn ($87.4mn). Rev- ment”. It blamed tighter margins not just on the
enue slid 22% to AUD8.06bn ($5.87bn) from pandemic’s impact but also pointed to the Interna-
AUD10.31bn ($7.5bn) in the same period of 2019. tional Maritime Organization’s (IMO) introduc-
Ampol warned shareholders that it was suffer- tion of new and tighter rules surrounding sulphur
ing “unprecedented challenges” owing to a painful content in bunker fuels at the start of the year.
slump in demand. A second wave of infections in The company said it had brought forward and
Victoria has seen transportation levels plummet in extended the refinery’s maintenance programme
the country’s second most populous state. More to mitigate some of these downwards pressures.
than that, however, interstate travel has collapsed However, it also noted that higher costs had been
after state and territory governments sealed their incurred in terms of managing the crude supply
borders in the hope of preventing a wider outbreak. chain during the maintenance period. Ampol
“Ampol has performed well in extremely has said previously that it intends to bring the
challenging market conditions with sustained facility back online in September.
weakness in refining margins, retail fuel vol- Despite tough operating conditions in the
umes and severe demand destruction caused by first half, the company may have weathered the
a range of factors, including restrictions imposed worst of the downturn, with RBC Capital Mar-
by governments in response to COVID-19,” kets noting that domestic fuel demand has been
CEO Matthew Halliday said. recovering since it bottomed out in April.™

P10 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 34 27•August•2020