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The ministry is unlikely to get everything it is September. But the Australian Manufacturing
asking for, given the pilot scheme’s popularity Workers Union has voiced fears that the cracks
among Russia’s powerful oil lobby. On the other may not be reparable and may require the heat
hand, some tweaks will have to be made given exchangers to be replaced altogether.
the huge budgetary shortfall that the country is Western Australia’s Department of Mines,
facing. The Kremlin will likely have to wade into Industry Regulation and Safety said the inspec-
the dispute and thrash out a compromise. tion orders for Trains 1 and 3 had to be carried
In other news, Lukoil has reported a sharp out before August 21. It is not yet clear whether
decline in oil and gas production in the first half Chevron may have to shut down the trains in
of the year. This is not only due to OPEC+ cuts order to carry out the inspection – and effect any
that came into force in April, but also a steep necessary repairs – but the order raises the pros-
drop in its Uzbek gas sales to China. pect that the whole plant could be shut down.
Chinese gas demand has continued to grow This comes as the LNG market continues to
this year, in spite of COVID-19 lockdown struggle to absorb a global oversupply, which has
measures, but at a much slower pace. Chinese been exacerbated by the hit to demand from the
companies have prioritised purchases while coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Indeed,
cutting imports, including from Uzbekistan, other LNG producers may welcome an outage at
where Lukoil operates the Southwest Gissar and Gorgon. And elsewhere in the world, the current
Kandym projects. market oversupply is not stopping LNG opera-
Turkmen state media have reported progress tors from moving forward with liquefaction
at several refining projects being undertaken by capacity expansions that were already underway
the country’s favoured contractor, US-registered before the pandemic hit.
Westport Trading Europe. But Turkmenistan’s Among those companies reporting progress
strict control over information flow makes it dif- recently are Cheniere Energy, which is now
ficult to determine just how much work is taking anticipating bringing Train 6 at its Sabine Pass
place on the ground. After all, despite numerous LNG terminal on the US Gulf Coast into service
reports of progress over the years, the country’s earlier than previously announced, in the second
throughput capacity does not appear to have half of 2022. Meanwhile, Kinder Morgan said it
changed in five years. would be ready to bring the ninth of 10 small-
scale liquefaction trains at its Elba Island LNG
If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping terminal in Georgia online this week. And Train
the former Soviet Union’s oil and gas sector then 3 at Cameron LNG, also in the US, started com-
please click here for NewsBase’s FSU Monitor . mercial service this week.
More grief for Gorgon LNG If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping
Chevron and its partners in the Gorgon LNG the global LNG sector then please click here for
project have been ordered by the government of NewsBase’s GLNG Monitor.
Western Australia to inspect the propane heat
exchangers at Trains 1 and 3 at the 15.6mn tonne Middle East: Aramco’s quiet week
per year (tpy) liquefaction terminal. This comes It has been a quiet week, with companies
as Train 2 at Gorgon remains offline for repairs throughout the region returning to work fol-
after an inspection of that train’s propane heat lowing the Eid al-Adha break. The big news
exchangers during planned maintenance found was Saudi Aramco’s Q2 earnings update, which
weld quality issues and cracks in the equipment. showed that the company’s net income had
The US-based super-major previously dropped by a full 50% during the first half of the
said Train 2 would be returned to service in year, with Q2 $10bn lower than Q1.

Week 32 13•August•2020 www. NEWSBASE .com P9