Page 6 - GLNG Week 27

GLNG NEWSBASE’S ROUNDUP GLOBAL (NRG) GLNG

becoming worthless. Royal Dutch Shell has signed a deal with Zarubezhneft on joint extrac-
followed BP in announcing up to $22bn in tion of hard-to-recover reserves in Western Sibe-
impairments after cutting its price forecasts. The ria, less than a week after announcing a similar
charges relate to the major’s integrated gas busi- partnership with Lukoil and Tatneft for projects
ness, namely its LNG operations in Australia, in the Volga-Urals area.
and upstream activities in Brazil and US shale Elsewhere, Uzbekistan is pushing ahead with
basins. the revamp of its refining sector, hiring South
It marks an end to an era for the German Korea’s SK Engineering & Construction to
power sector, after energy giants E.ON and RWE undertake front-end engineering design (FEED)
last week completed a $25bn asset swap that work for a $500mn upgrade of the Bukhara oil
began in 2018 – one of the largest deals in the his- refinery. Last month work also commenced on a
tory of German industry. Under the final stage of similar project at the Ferghana refinery, Uzbeki-
the transaction, RWE received E.ON’s renewable stan’s other main oil processing plant.
and gas storage assets. RWE is investing heav- Tashkent’s goal is to produce more vehicle
ily in clean energy, with $5.6bn earmarked for and jet fuels, of higher quality, to help reduce
new projects in Europe, North America and the its imports and make fuel shortages a thing of
Asia-Pacific region, with $1.1bn set aside for the past. But the unanswered question is how
German investments. Uzbekistan will procure enough crude to run its
refineries at full capacity.
If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping
Europe’s oil and gas sector then please click here for If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping
NewsBase’s EurOil Monitor . the former Soviet Union’s oil and gas sector then please
click here for NewsBase’s FSU OGM Monitor .
FSU: Nord Stream 2 battles on
Russia’s embattled Nord Stream 2 project cleared Japan invests big in African LNG
a key hurdle this week, with Danish regulators Japan has announced a $14.4bn investment drive
revising the construction permit they issued last by some of the country’s leading energy develop-
year to allow Gazprom to use anchored vessels ers and financiers in Mozambique’s LNG poten-
to finish the remaining 120 km of the pipeline’s tial, strongly suggesting that a group of private
offshore section. It is understood that Gazprom and state banks have agreed to lend to Total’s
intends to use two Russian vessels stationed at Mozambique LNG project.
the German port of Mukran to finish the pipe- The headline deal, reported by the Nikkei at
line, and anchoring could be necessary. the end of last week, is Mitsui & Co. and Japan
While this is a clear step forward for Nord Oil, Gas and Metals National Corp.’s (JOG-
Stream 2, now running over a year behind sched- MEC’s) ownership of a 20% stake in a 12mn tpy
ule, the threat of stricter US sanctions continues project that will see the development of a gas
to hang over the project. A bill announcing new field in the north of Mozambique, Japan’s Nik-
sanctions is making its way through US Con- kei reported.
gress, but both Germany and the EU have said Four Japanese private banks – MUFG Bank,
they will consider countering US actions with Mizuho Bank, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking and
measures of their own. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank – will provide
Russian producers are banding together to most of the debt funding for the project, and
share technology and expertise to develop hard- the state-owned Japan Bank for International
to-recover oil, which is anticipated to account Cooperation (JBIC) will supply $3bn in loans.
for an increasing share of the country’s output The African Development Bank (AfDB) will
over the coming decades. Gazprom Neft has just also support the project, the report said.

P6 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 27 10•July•2020