Page 9 - GLNG Week 27 2022

GLNG ASIA GLNG

State agency backs North West Shelf

extension, with environmental conditions

PROJECTS THE Western Australian Environmental Pro- against the agency’s recommendations. Western
tection Authority (EPA) has backed a proposal Australia’s Minister for Environment will then
to extend the lifespan of Woodside Energy’s be tasked with making the final decision on
North West Shelf (NWS) LNG project by 50 whether to allow the NWS partners to proceed
years. However, the agency said it would back with the extension project.
the extension on the condition that the facility Woodside said the joint venture would “care-
achieves net zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emis- fully consider” the conditions outlined by the
sions over the remainder of this decade. EPA.
The EPA has recommended that the facility “At a time of heightened concern around
avoid, cut or offset all of its carbon dioxide (CO2) energy security, the NWS Project has an impor-
emissions until 2029, while also cutting nitrogen tant role to play in delivering natural gas to local
oxide (NOx) emissions, in part to protect the and international customers, providing energy
rock art of the Murujuga indigenous people that can support their decarbonisation commit-
against industrial pollution. ments,” stated Woodside’s vice president of Aus-
“The EPA considers that there may be a threat tralian operations, Fiona Hick.
of serious or irreversible damage to rock art from The company also noted that the continued
industrial air emissions ... accelerating the natu- development of gas via the NWS project aligned
ral weathering,” the EPA said in its assessment of with its own climate strategy. This consists of two
the life extension plan. elements – reducing Scope 1 and 2 emissions to
Woodside, its partners in the NWS project, an aspiration of net zero by 2050 or sooner, and
environmental groups and any other interested investing in products or services to help its cus-
parties were given three weeks to lodge appeals tomers reduce their emissions™

Pakistan fails to get single offer

in latest LNG tender

TENDERS PAKISTAN has once again failed to receive a sin- year.
gle offer in a tender for LNG spot cargoes, as the The bid it received in late June from Qatar
country scrambles to find gas supply to ease the Energy Trading, for example, was priced at $39.8
acute energy crisis it is experiencing. per mmBtu. Pakistan has struggled to procure
The company invited bids from suppliers for cargoes, as there is a limit to how much the coun-
two cargoes in July, followed by five in August try can afford to pay, given it is trying to preserve
and three in September. The tender closed on its foreign currency reserves.
July 7. Pakistan’s energy crisis has been exacerbated
It marks the fourth time in a month that Paki- by low levels of hydropower generation and a
stan has failed to procure LNG in tender, reflect- heatwave this year that has driven up demand
ing the global market’s tightness. State-owned for energy. Many of its cities are now suffering
Pakistan LNG (PLL)’s previous competition in from rolling blackouts, forcing the government
late June received only a single bid from Qatar to resort to emergency measures such as ration-
Energy Trading for a single cargo for July 30-31. ing electricity and limiting the working hours of
PLL had also wanted to secure cargoes on July some factories and other businesses. Pakistan
3-4, July 8-9 and July 25-26. has also ramped up power generation at coal and
For years, Pakistan has relied to a large degree fuel oil-burning plants, driving up its emissions.
on spot LNG purchases, delivered to its two ter- On July 6, Pakistan’s power minister Khurram
minals in Karachi. For many years this strategy Dastgir noted that the 969-MW Neelum-Jhelum
has served it well, given that spot prices have hydropower plant had been closed due to a mal-
generally been low for much of the past decade. function, putting the country’s power system
However, this also means the country has been under additional stress.™
hit hard by the LNG supply crunch over the past

Week 27 08•July•2022 www. NEWSBASE .com P9